More Measurement Mistakes

Rosie keeps it up:
(on the scale this morning)
"Look how many inches I weigh!"

First Day of a New School Year

1:31a.m.  awake, fully clothed, and wonder if it's morning

                 It is not morning, but I fell asleep nursing my fussy 9-month-old earlier than I usually go to bed, so it almost felt like a good night's sleep by then.

2:30a.m.  awake to cries of "Mama" from down the hall.  Legolas has lost his pacifier. Please don't write anonymous "recommendations" about 2 year olds and pacifiers.  I know. I know! (and I'm paying for it).

6:30a.m.  Now it's morning!  About half of the kids are up.  Make coffee. Try to pray.

7 a.m. emergency cleaning effort.  Dishes, vacuuming, pick-up.  9-month-old Eowyn is eating everything off of the floor.  I try not to do housework on Sundays, so Monday mornings can be tricky (read: big disaster everywhere).  On the first day of school, we knew we didn't want to start like this.

8:15 a.m. leave for daily Mass.  Mass begins at 8:15a.m.  We live 10 minutes away from church.  You do the math, we made it to communion.

9:10 a.m. scramble a dozen eggs, toast a loaf of bread (no I'm not exaggerating. Ok, I think there were maybe 5 slices left).  Tell everyone to eat fast.

9:30 a.m.  Begin "Circle Time".  Bible study and Shakespeare to start our day.  Bible study went great. Shakespeare? I was pretty much hearing the kids' version of "boo and hiss":  "This is the worst lecture ever!" and "Can we just do workbooks or something?!"

Am I daunted? Oh heck no! This is going to be great!

11a.m. I give in: workbooks it is.

stay with me now: 11:01 no lesson plans for grades 4 and 6.
                              11:02 smell something and realize it's someone's diaper
                              11:03 three to five children need me to direct them before they can start
                              11:04 discover 4th grade lesson plans (Thank You!!)
                              11:05 bickering over someone counting too loudly, and counter-bickering
                              11:06 complaints that "this math is too easy"
                              11:07 tears that this math is too easy
                              11:08 tears over the noise, and that the (other child's) math is too hard
                              11:09 tears because noise sensitive child called other child the "scourge of the schoolroom"
                              11:10 tears because help is needed
                              11:11 shouting (through tears) because help is actually NOT needed
                               [exodus from classroom of three children seeking silent places to work]
                               11:12- 11:30 surprisingly productive and cheerful work accomplished
                    
LUNCH
I made mac n' cheese, so my kids thought I was the best mom ever.  The afternoon was our annual "Birthday of Mary (Sept. 8th)/ Back to School" party.  We sang Marian hymns outside of our local church and then went to a park for Marian-blue cupcakes and soccer.  The kids scored loot bags filled with pencils and erasers and candy.  I got to vent to my friends about the "first day".

Basically, it was great!

Orphan

This little girl was three weeks old.  Found under a truck at a flea market.  She is still on formula and a wild little thing!   The first night home she would only hide under our couch.  But with 8 children in the house, that wasn't going to last long!  My kids have handled this little kitty and fed her formula, kibble, and treats...and decided to clicker train her.  They aim high.  Anyway, these are pictures of her at the store where we found her for sale for $9.95.  She looks like such a little ragamuffin!  I'll get new pictures up of her now that she's been living with us for about a week.  She has a name.  Please don't roll your eyes when I tell you it's another Lord of the Rings character.  She's Galadriel!

(more to come)
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Ok! Here we are, playing at home!

exploring the screened porch...please excuse the mess, my children will be attending to that...

Yes, her collar is too big, but it has a bell that jingles as she plays!(...and a pink bow, because, she needs a bow).

She loves her formula, but is eating kibble as well now.

We are having so much fun with her!

and we got her a pretty new bowl, and yes, it matches her bow!  

A Promise in the Sky

It was a rare rainy day here yesterday.  But a rainy day doesn't mean the clear blue sky won't peek through (you can see it in the corner of this photo).

all photo credits: Arwen

With the bright sunlight of the Southwest and the dark stormclouds that came in from over the mountains, the colors of the rainbows can be so vivid!

Little Oratory, "The Hours"

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a bad experience with listening to the Liturgy of the Hours on my phone.  I only tried one website, so there are probably more beautiful options out there which I left unexplored.  I waited too long to try to simply read the Hours on my phone. But I tell you, I am really not able to gaze into a screen and lift my mind up to God.  I just don't pray on my computer.  I knew it had to be a paper and ink copy of the Hours if I was going to do it.

My husband helped me buy a book of Christian Prayer, which is a simplified version of the Hours (or something, I'm such a novice at this Breviary thing!)  When it arrived in the mail, it was sort of exciting. The book is leather and has pretty colored markers…I imagined how wonderful it would be if I prayed the hours.

 And thank Heaven it came with a guide! I honestly have NO IDEA how anyone would find anything on their own with this book! I can barely make heads or tails of it with the guide and special prayer card that has all of the daily psalms and prayers on it.  But, I decided that even if I was doing it "wrong", I could only learn by trying.  I realized quickly that I am a perfectionist.




I began with just Morning Prayer, and I didn't even fit it in every day.  But I discovered that I liked to begin my day with Morning Prayer. It seemed very complete to me, with the readings, intercessory prayers and canticles.  Then I began to try to add Evening Prayer.  Again, it wasn't every evening I got to it, but I liked to get to it, and I felt a rich and full sense of completeness to my day when I was able to close the day in this way.

Well, upon a very rare quiet moment in the afternoon, I picked up my Christian Prayers book and glanced at some of those other "midday" hours.  Much to my surprise they were much shorter, simpler little moments of prayer for the busier hours of the day.  I must honestly confess that as of yet I have never prayed all of the hours, or at least not at the right time.  I was highly encouraged to think, however, that it would be entirely possible for me to do so!  Maybe I cannot pray them every day at the correct hour on the hour (I do have 8 children under the age of 13 whom I home educate!), but I bet I could get it done some days, close to the hour, and I bet that it would be nothing but…grace-filled.

In short, I love it.  Honestly, I do.  I love that the Hours are there for me to pray, even if I can't pray them all.  They are a huge gift to the Church, and I love that when I do, or can, pray them, I am joined in prayer by faithful throughout the Universal Church.  I am indebted to every one of the women who inspired me and encouraged me to try.  We certainly aren't required to pray them, but I'm posting this just to encourage any reader to just give them a look.  See what the Spirit moves you to do.

Is Eight Enough?

Last summer I was at the pool, 5 or 6 months pregnant, with 7 children in tow.  Erin, the best swimming instructor ever, let out one of her awesome laughs and said "is it 'Eight's Enough'?"
Now, in case it hasn't been made apparent yet, I'm hopelessly behind on cultural norms.  My husband had to inform me that this was the title of a TV show.  I pretty much guessed as much, but I totally struggled to respond in a comprehensible or appropriate manner.  I think I might have said a sort of half-laughing "we'll see…"  I think I might have thought "Heck, one is enough!" It's not really about "enough".

I've beat on this subject before, but you see I was out on a walk yesterday and my kids asked to go past the "dog lady".  She is a very nice young mom, probably 7 years younger than I.  She has two children and  four dogs.  Did you flinch? FOUR dogs!  Big ones too.  A lab, two spaniels, and some shih tzu mix that isn't really big.  Yes, but see, that's ok, because she's some pre-vet degree animal person.  And so it's cool for her to have four dogs, but I'm crazy if I have four kids.  I'll stop being snarky.

We chatted nicely about her dogs (because, really, I'm a dog person too).  And then she looked at my kids and said "I can't believe how good their being for you. I mean, I can't imagine being that outnumbered."

And then (since I'm apparently always at a loss for words at moments like these, buckling under the pressure to be a witness to the entire gospel of life in one witty comeback) she added, referring to her dogs and two children ,"I guess I'm outnumbered six to one, but four of those seem easier." (I was pretty much rendered silent as my mind grappled with my reaction to a woman who houses four dogs yet marvels at a mother on a walk with four children).

Ok, seriously now.  Comparing children and dogs, even in terms of the work they require, is just not a good idea.  I love dogs. Cute, cuddly, loyal, protective. I get it.  Kids? Whiney, snotty, poopy. I get it.  But noooo way.  Kids may not be "easier" than dogs, in the sense that you can't just shove them in a kennel or re-home them if it feels like things aren't working, but they are actually rational and they do have immortal souls that will live for all eternity!!!  Some things aren't comparable.

Since I am not eloquent enough to elaborate on the importance of the issue I sense is at hand in our society, I'm going to have to dump a heavy Chesterton quote on you.  It encapsulates something of what I'm after when I am exasperated at the reaction of so many in our society when confronted with children of even small numbers.  They are just surprised that anyone could ever consider having more than one or at most three.  I think they could raise their estimation of the greatness of human life.

(From The Weight of Glory)
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which,if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilites, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - These are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."--G.K. Chesterton

Homeschooling…revisited

Last winter was long and it was cold.  By the first months of the new year, there had been over 20 days with temperatures below zero.  By March, my husband packed us up and headed for his homeland in the Southwest.  We stayed for an entire month, and honestly, I didn't really mind.  The fourth week was overkill for me, but I too had "had it" with the snow.  I'm not sure spring came.  I'm pretty sure that winter lasted until June, and then it was summer.  Ahh. Summer.

But the winter haunted me.  My husband longing for sunshine, eight energetic children bursting with life…and being trapped within our four walls by the arctic blasts outdoors.

I seriously considered an addition to our home.  I also considered, for real, school.

Brick and mortar. The Catholic school just down the road.  I know many good families, big devoted Catholic families that I trust, who send their kids there.  Our best neighborhood friends go there too.  Why not just send the kids out of these four walls?  

Sometimes asking these questions is extremely telling...

I can't do it. 

Well, first I prayed hard that the Holy Spirit would help me to be open and to trust, and I honestly asked my husband if he would consider it.  Amazingly, he didn't think twice.  He wasn't even tempted.  The relief and encouragement and joy I felt surprised me.  I don't think I knew how much I loved homeschooling.  My mind started racing with new lists of classics to fill our shelves with: Little Women,   The Secret Garden, The Sign of the Beaver.  Maybe I went crazy and bought a whole bunch of cute new "beginning reader" books about Biscuit and stopped my spree when I saw how much MagnaTiles cost! (dang).  I am dreaming of homemade finger paint and play-doh recipes, art easels and new paint supplies.  I'm planning hikes and feast day pilgrimages.  I'm dreaming big dreams, idealistic dreams, and I know the day-to-day will never be as shiny and sunny as my hopes, but if I don't homeschool, I don't even get to dream!

And you know what? You'd be surprised how many shiny and sunny days there are…amidst the spilled milk and dinner dishes.  You'd be surprised how fun it is to read history aloud to a group of middle schoolers who are totally pumped about the Catholic resistance to the French Revolution.  My six year old had his soccer socks pulled up over his knees and he said "Look, I'm the Scarlet Pimpernel"!  (Did you know that comes in a movie starring Jane Seymore?)

So what about those long winter days?  I guess I'll just have to keep trying to fill them with stacks of books, play dates at our church's gym, and maybe we'll just end up out of state again come March.  I'm not really worried about it.  Mostly, I'm just really really happy, thankful, grateful to God that I get to do this again, one more year.