Sunday, June 24, 2012
St Luke; The Navarre Bible - Book 26
Well, due to a couple of screw ups by United Airlines, we missed our flight to Paris and couldn't get rebooked until Monday evening! So we're still here at home. Very disappointing situation, but we are making the best of it.
So I figured I'd write my book review instead of missing this week.
I started reading this Gospel of Luke Bible study on Ash Wednesday. I'd read a couple of passages most mornings, first thing while waiting for the kettle to heat up. Initially I thought it would just take me all of the Lent to read, but I guess I'm a slower reader than I thought :). I especially enjoyed the very detailed, scholarly and orthodox commentary in the footnotes on each page.
At some point this year, I'd like to also read Luke's Acts of the Apostles.
Anyway, I highly recommend this series of scripture studies.
For more book reviews, visit 52 Books.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
European Strewing
Well, in three days we leave for our European vacation. I have had terrible insomnia just from nerves. The idea of being on a plane over the Atlantic for 9 hours all night long with my very high strung 10 year old and with the possibility of not having my husband there is freaking me out. I am a weak vessel. I can't even get past that to actually look forward to being there and experiencing the history, life and culture of France and Spain. I know I am so, so blessed. But I am often lousy at realizing it. But this too shall pass and we'll be there and then we can start figuring out what we want to see and experience.
Hannah is planning on doping all of us up with Dramamine which she swears will knock us all out and we'll be well rested (or as well as can be expected) when we arrive in Paris at 2 something a.m. our time (but a reasonable morning hour, Paris time). My thought is we just get to our lodgings and chill and then go to the 6:30 evening Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral. I think just seeing Notre Dame and maybe eating out somewhere is plenty to do your first day in Paris after the ordeal of flying all night.
I do have a list of things I'd like to do in Paris:
Sean is going to make a video journal as part of his confirmation preparation. Two saints we are going to try to learn about and visit (they are both incorruptibles!)are St. Vincent de Paul and St. Catherine de Laboure. I also would like to find the site of the University of Paris where Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas taught. I presume it is where the Sorbonne is now.
We also want to see:
The Louvre
The Eiffel Tower
Beautiful churches
The Arc de Triomphe
The Orsay Museum (Impressionists)
The Pantheon
And just soak in the Parisian atmosphere
We hope to get on an excursion to Versailles and Giverny one day.
Rick and the kids want to go to Disneyland one day. I don't think we'll have time for it, but they really want to do it.
so we'll see what we can fit in during these five days.
Hannah has a friend who is spending the summer in Paris, so she hopes to see her at least once while we are there.
On Will's birthday, 6/29 we'll leave Paris and go on to Lourdes. I'm very excited about this! We just spend one night there, but I hope to participate in the candlelight vigil. It would be nice to go to vigil Mass Saturday night if possible, because the next day we are going to spend all day on a train getting to Avila, Spain.
Hannah, Will and Josh need to be signed into their program at the Catholic University of Avila. Rick, myself, Sean and Becky will be staying in a little apartment in the center of Avila. I think it would nice to spend a couple of days just getting oriented to Avila. I'd like to do a day trip or maybe two to Madrid and a day trip to Toledo. I definitely want to go to The Prado in Madrid. I'm not sure what else we'll do in Spain. Of course in Avila our saints to learn about will be St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross.
I am praying that this trip is worth all the anxiety, money and effort! I hope our horizons get expanded and we learn more about this fascinating world and more about our Catholic history too. We'll be leaving Hannah, Will and Josh behind to study Spanish. I hope they learn a lot and have a great experience. Especially Josh.
And then, in a sense, I can't wait to be back home again!
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Anne of Green Gables - Book 25
This is a reread. Last night, I just finished reading Anne of Green Gables out loud to my ten year old daughter and my 49.5 year old husband. They both enjoyed it immensely. That's the sign of a true classic in my mind, that any and all ages can enjoy it so thoroughly.
Anne is an 11 year old orphan who is sent to live with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, a brother and sister who are getting on in years and who want to adopt an orphan boy to help them with their little farm at Green Gables. By mistake, a girl is sent and thus the unsinkable Anne Shirley comes into their lives. Anne takes over their hearts and the reader's heart as well. She is so smart, so in love with beauty, so full of life and so funny that you can't but fall in love with her.
Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author, is a wonderful writer. She writes so picturesquely of the countryside and all the trees and flowers, that you really feel transported. I would love to visit Prince Edward Island, where this book is set.
Two questions were raised in my mind while reading this book again. Why do they never go play at the beach? They live on an island and in fact can see the ocean from a distance, yet there never seem to be any excursions to the beach, except perhaps one, but that is a business trip. If I lived on an island, I'd be going to the seashore all the time!
My other question has to do with Anne's being an orphan. Anne's parents die when she is only three months old, she then is raised by a neighbor of her parents, a Mrs. Thomas (I think, if I am recalling correctly; too lazy to look it up!) until she is eight. Then she is hired as a mother's helper for another lady, but that only lasts less than two years. Then Anne is shipped off to the orphanage. Yet there is little reference at all to how this must have affected Anne's life psychologically. Nowadays, we are all about attachment disorder for orphans, but Anne registers hardly any psychic pain from her tumultuous and far from ideal upbringing. She doesn't seem to feel much affection for her former caretakers. Mostly, she remembers how hard it was to help out a family with two sets of twins! David Copperfield and other books about orphaned children deal much more with the tragedies visited upon them as orphans, but not in this book! I do happen to know two people who were raised in orphanages. My own father in law and the father of a friend of mine. My father in law doesn't seem to have suffered any detachment disorder due to his experience, though, he can hardly recall any of his childhood at all. It is just a blank. However, he is a jolly, hard-working, busy, funny, kind man. He's made a success of his life and there isn't an iota of despair or self-pity about him. My friend's father was impressive for his learnedness, gentleness, and deep devotion to God and family. So I don't think Anne Shirley is unrealistic in that she doesn't seem harmed by her experiences, but I just wonder what makes the difference there, between those who suffer or whose very personalities are deformed by their life as orphans and those who seem to come through whole.
Anyway, this book is a delight and everyone should read it! It will stay with you forever and give you joy! Now we move on to the next book in the series, Anne of Avonlea.
For more book reviews go to the 52 Books in 52 Weeks site.
Anne is an 11 year old orphan who is sent to live with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, a brother and sister who are getting on in years and who want to adopt an orphan boy to help them with their little farm at Green Gables. By mistake, a girl is sent and thus the unsinkable Anne Shirley comes into their lives. Anne takes over their hearts and the reader's heart as well. She is so smart, so in love with beauty, so full of life and so funny that you can't but fall in love with her.
Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author, is a wonderful writer. She writes so picturesquely of the countryside and all the trees and flowers, that you really feel transported. I would love to visit Prince Edward Island, where this book is set.
Two questions were raised in my mind while reading this book again. Why do they never go play at the beach? They live on an island and in fact can see the ocean from a distance, yet there never seem to be any excursions to the beach, except perhaps one, but that is a business trip. If I lived on an island, I'd be going to the seashore all the time!
My other question has to do with Anne's being an orphan. Anne's parents die when she is only three months old, she then is raised by a neighbor of her parents, a Mrs. Thomas (I think, if I am recalling correctly; too lazy to look it up!) until she is eight. Then she is hired as a mother's helper for another lady, but that only lasts less than two years. Then Anne is shipped off to the orphanage. Yet there is little reference at all to how this must have affected Anne's life psychologically. Nowadays, we are all about attachment disorder for orphans, but Anne registers hardly any psychic pain from her tumultuous and far from ideal upbringing. She doesn't seem to feel much affection for her former caretakers. Mostly, she remembers how hard it was to help out a family with two sets of twins! David Copperfield and other books about orphaned children deal much more with the tragedies visited upon them as orphans, but not in this book! I do happen to know two people who were raised in orphanages. My own father in law and the father of a friend of mine. My father in law doesn't seem to have suffered any detachment disorder due to his experience, though, he can hardly recall any of his childhood at all. It is just a blank. However, he is a jolly, hard-working, busy, funny, kind man. He's made a success of his life and there isn't an iota of despair or self-pity about him. My friend's father was impressive for his learnedness, gentleness, and deep devotion to God and family. So I don't think Anne Shirley is unrealistic in that she doesn't seem harmed by her experiences, but I just wonder what makes the difference there, between those who suffer or whose very personalities are deformed by their life as orphans and those who seem to come through whole.
Anyway, this book is a delight and everyone should read it! It will stay with you forever and give you joy! Now we move on to the next book in the series, Anne of Avonlea.
For more book reviews go to the 52 Books in 52 Weeks site.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Across Five Aprils-Book 24
This book, Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt, was one of my very favorites as a child. I am sure I read it several times at least. I remember the line in the book about how Jenny, the main character's sister, made sure her brother got the first lettuce of the season from the garden really made me stop and think about what life must have been like before you could run to the grocery store and buy lettuce at any time of the year. I remember as a child that was such an eye-opener to me.
The story is about a young boy of eight, named Jethro Creighton and it begins the April the Civil War breaks out. Jethro lives in Southern Illinois away from where all the fighting takes place, but the tensions and the horror of war are still visited upon him and his family. He has three brothers, a cousin and a beloved school teacher, who is also his sister's beau, who all go to war. The brother he is closest to, fights for the South, while all the others fight for the North. The books ends in April again, just after Lincoln has been assassinated and Jethro is now 13 years old.
The family was not unfamiliar with tragedy. Ellen, the mother, has seen four of her children die. Three in one summer from disease and an older daughter in a tragic incident that has caused bad feelings among their neighbors. Jethro is the youngest. But, of course, the war brings more sadness and fear and the family struggles to hold on. It really is a tale of Jethro's coming of age, for the family is forced to rely on him to keep them going.
Hunt is a lyrical writer. Her prose is beautiful. She manages to weave clear facts about the war as it progresses with the story of the Creightons' day to day life. She does this through the newspapers and letters the family reads. Hunt is sympathetic to both sides and is very good at illustrating the passions and views of both.
I read this aloud to my 13 year old. As usual, he resisted for the first half of the book. You have to be very patient with Sean! But by the end he was interested and was very moved at the book's conclusion. The book respects the intelligence of its young readers and really is quite thought-provoking. We read the book fairly slowly over the course of a few months. Just a few weeks ago we managed to go on a little field trip, where we visited the Old Courthouse Museum in Winchester, VA which is a small museum that records much of the turmoil that town encountered during the Civil War. Sean, who doesn't have much tolerance for field trips, enjoyed it a lot. So I give this beloved book two thumbs up!
For more book reviews visit 52 Books.
The story is about a young boy of eight, named Jethro Creighton and it begins the April the Civil War breaks out. Jethro lives in Southern Illinois away from where all the fighting takes place, but the tensions and the horror of war are still visited upon him and his family. He has three brothers, a cousin and a beloved school teacher, who is also his sister's beau, who all go to war. The brother he is closest to, fights for the South, while all the others fight for the North. The books ends in April again, just after Lincoln has been assassinated and Jethro is now 13 years old.
The family was not unfamiliar with tragedy. Ellen, the mother, has seen four of her children die. Three in one summer from disease and an older daughter in a tragic incident that has caused bad feelings among their neighbors. Jethro is the youngest. But, of course, the war brings more sadness and fear and the family struggles to hold on. It really is a tale of Jethro's coming of age, for the family is forced to rely on him to keep them going.
Hunt is a lyrical writer. Her prose is beautiful. She manages to weave clear facts about the war as it progresses with the story of the Creightons' day to day life. She does this through the newspapers and letters the family reads. Hunt is sympathetic to both sides and is very good at illustrating the passions and views of both.
I read this aloud to my 13 year old. As usual, he resisted for the first half of the book. You have to be very patient with Sean! But by the end he was interested and was very moved at the book's conclusion. The book respects the intelligence of its young readers and really is quite thought-provoking. We read the book fairly slowly over the course of a few months. Just a few weeks ago we managed to go on a little field trip, where we visited the Old Courthouse Museum in Winchester, VA which is a small museum that records much of the turmoil that town encountered during the Civil War. Sean, who doesn't have much tolerance for field trips, enjoyed it a lot. So I give this beloved book two thumbs up!
For more book reviews visit 52 Books.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
LIfe right now
Things going on:
We are wrapping up our school year:
Tomorrow is our last Latin class!
Next Tuesday is the last day our math tutor comes until September!
We have to take our CATs this week to fulfill state requirements.
Thursday we have a field trip to do a stream study at an Audubon Nature Sanctuary
We are getting ready to go on our European Adventure! We leave on Saturday, 6/23, spend 5 days in Paris, one night in Lourdes, then the rest of the time in Spain, in Avila where we hope to do day trips to Madrid and Toledo. We come back July 7th. I'm focusing on clothes and suitcases and getting the house clean for the petsitter and dealing with pets' shots (plus a brand new kitten who is a darling rascal) and a million other little things that need to be done before we go.
Becky's 11th birthday on is 7/12. Luckily she just wants a trip to the American Girl store for her birthday (plus a bazillion American Girl things - she'll get some but not nearly as much as she longs for, which is basically everything they make!). I feel like I need to make some plans now, because I have no idea what state I'll be in when we get back!
Hannah just took her LSAT yesterday. She is not happy. But if she really didn't do well, she can take it again. Sometimes it really sucks being a woman and having to take a test on a day when an event comes a day early causing painful cramps and making it that much harder to concentrate. You gotta be tough, if you're a woman!
I've also been a bit busy making plans for our Aquinas Learning Center and trying to plan out the school year for Josh, Sean and Becky.
I've been having a terrible time finishing a book because of my distracted mood right now. I'm halfway through The Evidential Power of Beauty. I recently started Another Kind of Learning by Father James Schall. I'm just at the very end of finishing Anne of Green Gables and Across Five Aprils as read alouds. I want to finish reading The Gospel of Luke before we leave for our trip. And I'd also like to finish up The Creed in Slow Motion, but I think that's going to have to happen after we get back.
I'm listening to Peter Kreeft's What Would Socrates Do? on audio. Nearing the end. He's on Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre is the philosopher I remember the most from my college days. By the end of my time there I was thoroughly sick of Mr. Sartre and rejected his philosophy wholeheartedly. What a poisonous thing it is. Professor Kreeft admires Sartre for his intellect and honesty . . . . haven't got to his critique yet.
Will spends his time, sleeping, watching movies, biking all over the place, hanging out with friends, playing guitar and he's also quite helpful around the house. Every night before Becky goes to sleep, he plays the guitar for her and tells her stories.
Hannah has been focused on the LSAT but she also helps out around the house (lots of cooking), she's been reading Persuasion and she talks a lot via skype to her boyfriend who is back at the Univ. of Dallas taking a summer course.
I can't wait until all things schoolish are over with and we can really focus on a fun summer!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
A Little History of the World - Book 23
I have been reading this book out loud, primarily to my history-averse 13 year old son, ever since September. We've gone through it very slowly. Honestly, I can't understand why it took us so long. Looking back this year has been a blur.
Anyway, A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich is an excellent living book that retells world history for children. I use the term 'living book' in the Charlotte Mason way. It is a well written, narrative telling of a subject by someone who is passionate about that particular subject. It does not talk down to children at all, in fact, adults will find it a very enjoyable and informative read.
I enjoyed the book, not only for Gombrich's style, but because of his point of view. History is not related through the eyes of America. Gombrich was an Austrian Jew who left for England just before Hitler took over. He wrote this book in 1935 in six weeks, which is amazing and really drives home the fact that he possessed a deep and comprehensive understanding of history. The book really summarizes very complex history in a big-picture, based-on-principles manner that presents it clearly and in such an organized way as to make it accessible to children. To me it was very interesting to read about European history from an Austrian/British point of view.
Another fascinating thing about my edition is that the last chapter was an update where Gombrich relates the history that he personally lived through since 1935 all the way up to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Gombrich died in 2001. He explains certain things he feels he got wrong in the original book. It makes the book end on a very warm, personal note. I felt like I'd really gotten to know this wonderfully intelligent and gentle author.
I've read several of these history books written for children. I've read some or most of both A Child's History of the World and The Story of Mankind. I had the original version of A Child's History of the World which I had trouble reading because it had a lot of subtle and not so subtle racism in it. I understand the updated version got rid of that little problem. My kids did not like The Story of Mankind by Van Loon. They found his tone patronizing and he also had that little problem of dividing the world up into yellow people and brown people. I have read three of the four books in Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World books. I appreciate them very much, but I think they are really aimed at a younger audience; she specifically wrote them for first through fourth graders. Frankly, I don't think kids need to know that much history in that much detail that young. Because the books are for the very young they do not have that universality of appeal to all ages that A Little History of the World has.
To me A Little History of the World hits just the right spot.
Two thumbs up! For more book reviews please go to 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Anyway, A Little History of the World by E. H. Gombrich is an excellent living book that retells world history for children. I use the term 'living book' in the Charlotte Mason way. It is a well written, narrative telling of a subject by someone who is passionate about that particular subject. It does not talk down to children at all, in fact, adults will find it a very enjoyable and informative read.
I enjoyed the book, not only for Gombrich's style, but because of his point of view. History is not related through the eyes of America. Gombrich was an Austrian Jew who left for England just before Hitler took over. He wrote this book in 1935 in six weeks, which is amazing and really drives home the fact that he possessed a deep and comprehensive understanding of history. The book really summarizes very complex history in a big-picture, based-on-principles manner that presents it clearly and in such an organized way as to make it accessible to children. To me it was very interesting to read about European history from an Austrian/British point of view.
Another fascinating thing about my edition is that the last chapter was an update where Gombrich relates the history that he personally lived through since 1935 all the way up to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Gombrich died in 2001. He explains certain things he feels he got wrong in the original book. It makes the book end on a very warm, personal note. I felt like I'd really gotten to know this wonderfully intelligent and gentle author.
I've read several of these history books written for children. I've read some or most of both A Child's History of the World and The Story of Mankind. I had the original version of A Child's History of the World which I had trouble reading because it had a lot of subtle and not so subtle racism in it. I understand the updated version got rid of that little problem. My kids did not like The Story of Mankind by Van Loon. They found his tone patronizing and he also had that little problem of dividing the world up into yellow people and brown people. I have read three of the four books in Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World books. I appreciate them very much, but I think they are really aimed at a younger audience; she specifically wrote them for first through fourth graders. Frankly, I don't think kids need to know that much history in that much detail that young. Because the books are for the very young they do not have that universality of appeal to all ages that A Little History of the World has.
To me A Little History of the World hits just the right spot.
Two thumbs up! For more book reviews please go to 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
Friday, June 1, 2012
A little affirmation
This past year has been rough. I think I got very negative about things. I have that tendency anyway in day to day life to be one thing while talking theory and another when actually trying to put things into action. I start things and then don't finish them because of distractions, or disappointment in how they are turning out. I take little bumps along the road too personally. I need to work on patience and perseverance.
It's been hard dealing with my 17 year old, his extreme introversion, his lack of motivation. I'm so anxious about the future all the time with him. And then my 13 year old has been so unhappy. He's tough to live with. I do think though that it is all in my own attitude because I know that there are wonderful, positive things going on too. I just don't focus on them and instead I get more and more negative.
So I've been working on this; trying to pray about it, trying to somehow win an attitude shift that will give me clarity. I can feel it trying to emerge from the shadows. I see glimpses of it, but it hasn't quite arrived yet!
Last night I was sitting with Hannah and William out on the screen porch after dinner. I'm so proud of those two, yet I know there were periods of time when I was consumed with anxiety about them. They are doing so well for themselves though. Hannah is full of plans and common sense. She's focused on goals, she is such a capable person. She's been studying for the LSAT she takes in two weeks. She's figured out a schedule to study for the GRE. She's got a boyfriend now and she's very happy with him. She's so smart and witty. I worry about things, college life, drinking, etc. I remember my foolish days. I think I was a lot more foolish. She's much more grounded in our faith than I ever was at that age. Geez, at that age I was completely alienated from the faith!
Will is such a fantastic person. He's quirky and talented, spiritual, grand-hearted, joyful, wise and cocky at the same time. He's so witty too. Last night he was once again talking about becoming a priest. Last time I talked to him he said no, he wanted to marry and have kids but last night he brought up the subject himself in a much more straightforward way than ever before. He wants to be a missionary. He's not sure of what order, but he likes the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. They run the chapel where he goes to daily Mass. I can really picture Will being happy in that sort of life. He's got that element of the aesthete, though both Hannah and I warned him against being too scrupulous. Hannah joked that that was a saint problem, so you know, not much of a problem!
Seeing those two and how well things have turned out so far, I wonder at my own lack of confidence in homeschooling and parenting. I've been at this homeschooling thing for 15 years yet I still suffer so much lack of self-esteem. All my bumbles and lack of follow through, all my mistakes and misguided handing of things are so magnified in my mind. But something good is there too. I just need to focus on that.
Each child is different. I need to see what is lovely in each. I need to tap the secret of how I can give them help to grow into the people God wants them to be. I know it is largely their call. It is their life, but I am here to help.
I need to pray more. Forty Hours is coming up preceding the Feast of Corpus Christi. I've decided I'm going to try to pray an hour each day before the Blessed Sacrament for my family, that I can be a better wife and mother to them as God calls me to be.
It's been hard dealing with my 17 year old, his extreme introversion, his lack of motivation. I'm so anxious about the future all the time with him. And then my 13 year old has been so unhappy. He's tough to live with. I do think though that it is all in my own attitude because I know that there are wonderful, positive things going on too. I just don't focus on them and instead I get more and more negative.
So I've been working on this; trying to pray about it, trying to somehow win an attitude shift that will give me clarity. I can feel it trying to emerge from the shadows. I see glimpses of it, but it hasn't quite arrived yet!
Last night I was sitting with Hannah and William out on the screen porch after dinner. I'm so proud of those two, yet I know there were periods of time when I was consumed with anxiety about them. They are doing so well for themselves though. Hannah is full of plans and common sense. She's focused on goals, she is such a capable person. She's been studying for the LSAT she takes in two weeks. She's figured out a schedule to study for the GRE. She's got a boyfriend now and she's very happy with him. She's so smart and witty. I worry about things, college life, drinking, etc. I remember my foolish days. I think I was a lot more foolish. She's much more grounded in our faith than I ever was at that age. Geez, at that age I was completely alienated from the faith!
Will is such a fantastic person. He's quirky and talented, spiritual, grand-hearted, joyful, wise and cocky at the same time. He's so witty too. Last night he was once again talking about becoming a priest. Last time I talked to him he said no, he wanted to marry and have kids but last night he brought up the subject himself in a much more straightforward way than ever before. He wants to be a missionary. He's not sure of what order, but he likes the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. They run the chapel where he goes to daily Mass. I can really picture Will being happy in that sort of life. He's got that element of the aesthete, though both Hannah and I warned him against being too scrupulous. Hannah joked that that was a saint problem, so you know, not much of a problem!
Seeing those two and how well things have turned out so far, I wonder at my own lack of confidence in homeschooling and parenting. I've been at this homeschooling thing for 15 years yet I still suffer so much lack of self-esteem. All my bumbles and lack of follow through, all my mistakes and misguided handing of things are so magnified in my mind. But something good is there too. I just need to focus on that.
Each child is different. I need to see what is lovely in each. I need to tap the secret of how I can give them help to grow into the people God wants them to be. I know it is largely their call. It is their life, but I am here to help.
I need to pray more. Forty Hours is coming up preceding the Feast of Corpus Christi. I've decided I'm going to try to pray an hour each day before the Blessed Sacrament for my family, that I can be a better wife and mother to them as God calls me to be.
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