Studeo: My Thinking Spot

Balance and Good Thinking

2021-12-28T07:02:00.004-06:00

The concept of balance has been on my mind and heart a lot lately, especially in looking at it as opposed to the problem of perfectionism.

When I was getting ready to head off to college, I first came in contact with C.S. Lewis' essay on Reading Old Books.This essay changed my life in many ways and my way of looking at the world forever. This quote, especially: "Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes." This is an idea really worth stewing on, because a first read might give you the wrong idea. It might be tempting to think that the mistakes he's talking about are the ones "the other guy" is making out there and that we as Christians and Catholics are nobly fighting. But I don't think that's what he means. It's harder in some ways to accept the fact that we are deeply affected by the ideas of our own era, even when we think we are diametrically opposed to everything in our modern culture.

He is saying that there are certain kinds of wrong thinking that tend to prevail in a certain era, no matter what side of the pew or political aisle you fall on. And he proposes that the solution is to read books from other eras - not as having ideas more perfect than our own, but as opportunities to broaden our perspective and our thinking. To compare and contrast and come out with perhaps just a little more wisdom than we could get from only looking at our contemporaries.

He explains in the same essay: "The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them." (emphasis mine)

So I've spent a bit of time contemplating what sort of thinking in myself AND out in the world might be problematic, especially through his method (and I already do love history). And one that keeps coming up over and over again is the idea of balance.

I'd like to illustrate a few different places/ways this concept has come up for me lately.

1. Affluence - Even for many (including me!) in our country who certainly wouldn't be described as wealthy, our culture is one in which we overflow with luxury and are deeply affected by a very consumerist society.

Right now, this is illustrated for me by a recent trip to a new Meijer store that just opened in our neck of the woods. I will admit to being very happy to this addition to our shopping choices, especially as an alternative to both Target and Walmart. It's a very nice store with full grocery and big box store options - in many ways more thorough and more varied than our local Target and Walmart. That's not an entirely bad thing. The prices are good and we can find a lot of our needs and wants all in one place.

The thing that stopped me in my tracks was really a silly thing. I was walking through the Sporting Goods department on my way to the garden center and I came across a large section of rolls of athletic tape, all identical except for their huge array of colors.

Note (12/28/2021): I never finished writing this blog post but thought there was enough to go ahead and publish it anyway.

Best Picture Marathon: Broadway Melody (1929)

2019-05-13T13:26:00.003-05:00

Broadway Melody PG13 1 hour, 40 minutes
Director: Harry Beaumont
Starring: Bessie Love, Anita Page, Charles King

Like Wings, Broadway Melody would seem a lot less impressive out of the context of when it was made and what technological advances they were showing off.

Broadway Melody opens with a cacophonous scene in a music shop/studio where many people are rehearsing/practicing many different types of songs right on top of each other. It was clearly something that couldn't have existed just a few years before.

I must admit that most of our familiarity with 1920s musicals comes from the musical Singin' in the Rain (1952). While watching Broadway Melody, Singing in the Rain came to mind many times, and not just because of the era. A little Googling helped me discover that Singin' in the Rain was written to bring together a bunch of the music of Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, who wrote the music for Broadway Melody. (Singin' in the Rain was produced by Arthur Freed.)

So final consensus here was that this is mostly interesting as a piece of history. The parody Dogway Melody (found in the special features on the DVD from our library) was more entertaining.

Best Picture Marathon: Wings (1927)

2019-05-12T08:53:00.000-05:00

As a family, we have long been interested in movies of (almost) all sorts and are a bit geeky about things like the Academy Awards. We've been talking for quite awhile about trying to watch the Academy Award Best Pictures in order and finally watched our first one last night. What really helped with getting this marathon started is that our local library has almost every Best Picture winner in their DVD collection.

Wings PG13 2 hours, 24 minutes
Director: William A. Wellman

Starring: Clara Bow, Charles Rogers, Richard Arlen and Gary Cooper

Wings is the epic story of two young men, Jack and David, who are in love with the same woman, Sylvia, and Mary, who is in love with Jack. Jack and David head off to war as bitter rivals, but end up becoming the best of friends as fighter pilots on the front lines in the last days of World War I.

Most of our family are not enthusiastic about silent films. The overall sentiment was that this was a bit overly long and dated, even though there were some great laugh-out-loud moments.

Bernie commented that Wings was the least silent film she's ever watched, because the restored version that we rented on Amazon had constant music plus lots of added sound effects.

Ria's impression was that movie-making of the time was still in transition from books - because the captions were so lengthy and descriptive.

It's fair to watch Wings for its historical value, but you can also pick up some context by watching this documentary (we haven't finished watching it yet). A couple of interesting tidbits we learned from it were that the director himself was a World War I fighter pilot and the movie was the famous Edith Head's first as lead costumer (Edith Head was the inspiration behind Edna "E" Mode from The Incredibles). Look for the other 3 parts of the documentary on Youtube...

First Day in my First Atrium

2018-07-17T21:05:00.001-05:00

So, fast forward a year after the events of my introduction to CGS post and we are in the midst of implementing our very first CGS Session (and we are all first-time catechists) - utilizing the materials for Level I with a group of 7 year old Summer Religious Ed Students.

I came back to the blog simply because I thought it would make a good place to record some of the highlights of our efforts. I hope to get some more pictures up here soon too.

We've been working hard all year to get our Level I atrium put together (and are still working hard on getting it put together!) and I've managed to use some of the presentations for our 2nd graders over the course of the last year with great success!

Yesterday was our first day of our first actual CGS session.

We put a LOT of effort into preparations and researching/finding creative solutions to using Level I materials with slightly older children. We especially put a lot of preparations into being ready to help 14 children enter into the atrium with a limited number of adults/teens, a limited amount of time and a limited number of practical life materials.

Here is some of what we did to make things work:

First of all we were fortunate enough to have three trained CGS peeps and one CGS enthusiast assistant (though two of the adults can't be there the whole time).

We started out in a homeroom and had some practical life/free shelf materials available there (including a great big line to walk with all kinds of goodies to carefully carry). Having a homeroom is helping us preserve the integrity and sacredness of the atrium and give special differentiation between the two spaces. We are also all removing our shoes when we are in the atrium.

We did the Introduction to the Atrium and the Enthronement of the Bible almost immediately, but then brought everyone back to the homeroom to talk about what we saw and then keep most of the group busy while a few children were started on practical life lessons at a time.

Here is what we observed on the first day:

First of all, it's a great bunch of kids. No drama or behavior issues.

What I did notice was that some of the kids seemed particularly shy or not particularly happy to be there (at least no smiles). I was very pleased to see that all of them adapted very quickly to the atrium.

Here are a few examples:

Two little boys (one of whom might have been drawing guns when he first got into the atrium) asked for the presentation on flower arranging. They tackled this work with great enthusiasm and focus and were reluctant to leave the atrium when they were invited to go to recess. They changed their minds after a moment's discussion, but first eagerly showed me what they had *made* - two beautiful little floral bouquets that they had (without any suggestion from me) placed in front of the lovely statue of the Madonna and Child. I very carefully aimed for a pondering-rather-than-praising response and could only come up with "What does that make you think about?" Without hesitation, they said "Jesus" and happily left for recess.

That first few hours was really intense and it was hard not to be hurried (I'm sure I failed some of the time). We made some reasonable compromises, like allowing the children to present practical life materials to each other.

And it was good. It wasn't perfect. I realized rather quickly that I had forgotten some things that I meant to say (you kind of have to jump in with both feet in this thing!) and yet it was quite good and it worked. And God provides!

Some of our surmises were pretty on track, for example, we thought that it might be worthwhile to have a lot of the art and extension works (such as tracing packets and collages) ready to go since we figured it would help the pace of working through materials not go too fast and that artwork would be an especially good way to help them ponder the materials. I think this worked rather well.

In the end, the clearest sign on this first day that this new endeavor was working is that all of the children showed good signs of normalization: peace, focus, interest and joy.

Introduction to An Unexpected Detour

2018-07-17T19:53:00.002-05:00

Last summer I was peacefully going through my life in fairly expected directions when something unexpected happened. I learned that there was going to be training for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) at a local parish. I knew these few facts at the time:

That CGS was a Montessori-based religious ed program (and I've loved Montessori for a long time)
That friends of mine had traveled to neighboring states to take the training.
A friend of mine from my parish was planning to take the training (because our pastor wanted to get the program going at our parish).
The second person from the parish would only be charged half price.

Connecting these dots caused me to check into whether my parish would want to send me along for the training as well. I was already working at the parish as a liturgical assistant, but thought it might be handy to have a staff member (who already loved Montessori) to take the training in order to help advocate for it, even though I didn't expect to be able to be a catechist - and I definitely had no intention of applying for the open position of DRE (who would be expected to implement the program).

The pastor said yes and I rearranged my schedule in order to free up the week for Level I, Part 1 training. And fell instantly in love. Although she missed the first day of training, my daughter Kate joined me beginning on day 2 and has been by my side ever since.

We (Kate and I) took the fast track with training by taking Level I, Part 2 at another neighboring parish just a few weeks later. I tentatively and tenuously started to do what I could to help brainstorm getting
the program started.

There are a lot of twists and turns to the whole story, but, in a nutshell, my pastor asked me to take the job of DRE and promised to get me help (and hired a full-time assistant within a few weeks) and be very flexible regarding our family/homeschooling needs. After a lot of prayer and intense family discussions I said yes.

Just wanted to share a brief introduction to this new piece of my life as I am hoping to blog about some parts of the story/journey.

Beautiful Peg Doll Apostles painted by Bernie (age 18)

A Celebration of Our Family's Favorite Children's Book Illustrators

2017-02-14T10:08:00.001-06:00

This post is based on a meme I participated in on Facebook.

It was so much fun to pick out favorite illustrators, but I wasn't able to include all of them on Facebook. These are from a list I just made of ones whose illustrations, especially (but also stories since many of them are both author and illustrator) had a huge impact on our family - and are really, in many ways, a part of our family.

C.W. Anderson Billy and Blaze

Virginia Lee Burton Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

I hated having to pick between Mike Mulligan and Katy and the Big Snow. Mike Mulligan won out partly because we managed to find a board book copy when Frank was little and I think it was his very favorite thing for some time. I also have loved The Little House since I was a child.

Barbara Cooney Miss Rumphius

We were first introduced to Miss Rumphius when my sister kindly passed along to us a box of picture books that her girls had out-grown. Thanks Sharon! If you were to buy one book based on the recommendations in this post, I would pick this one.

"You must do something to make the world more beautiful."

Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire.

Although their Greek Myths is probably the most read title at our house, I want to especially point out Abe Lincoln which was the first book we discovered of theirs and which completely captivated Ria when she was very small.

Here is a description I wrote about that episode many years ago:

When my children were young Abe Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire was one of their favorite books. My three year old daughter was making sand-castles in the back one day. While they looked like a collection of sand-hills to the untrained eye, she was kind enough to elaborate on their construction. "This sandcastle is like Abraham Lincoln's house," she explained, "because it has bear-skin rugs."

Tomie de Paola The Lady of Guadalupe

We have so many favorites among his lovely books, but probably my favorite is The Lady of Guadalupe. Like Abe Lincoln above, it was the first of his books we were introduced to, in fact I believed I borrowed it from the same library at the same time as Abe Lincoln. Other favorites include The Legend of the Poinsettia, The Night of Las Posadas and his 26 Fairmount Avenue series, which is autobiographical.

Marjorie Flack. Angus and the Ducks

Angus in the Ducks holds an extra special place in our hearts for Gus, especially, at about age 2, learn to love stories and also because we have a very dear recording of Kate at age 3 or 4 reciting it from memory.

Now, I have to admit that Ria has always loved a read-aloud. When she was quite small, she would sit through chapter books such as the Little House books like no other child I've ever seen. (This doesn't by any means indicate that she was an angelic child - she was the only one of my children that seemed to resent - at least for a while - the arrival of a younger sibling). But when Gus came along, things got a little trickier. When he got to be about 2 years old or so, there was nothing that would get him more noisy and upset than when I tried to sit down and read a story aloud to Ria. He would babble and complain like anything and it seemed there wasn't a whole lot I could do. I was pretty stubborn too and wouldn't let him win the day, I'd at least finish reading the chapter I was on, even if I had to be quite loud and deliberate about it. At that time he wasn't very interested even in picture books for some reason - probably had gotten fed up with all the chapter books I read to Ria.

One day, though, I found just the right book for him at the right time. It was Angus and the Ducks by Marjorie Flack. We had found a lovely old hardcover copy at our library book sale and he loved it immediately. The illustrations are enchanting. The language is simple, but charming. He loved the dog and the duck noises were very funny. It's interesting how certain books have become major milestones for us in our child-raising. This one we will always appreciate because it's the book that helped Gus start to love books.

We also love The Story about Ping.

Maj Lindman Flicka, Ricka and Dicka

Arnold Lobel. Frog and Toad

We especially loved his Frog and Toad series. They are such a charming and engaging story of friendship, especially amidst the sadness and frustrations of life.

**Robert McCloskey. Blueberries for Sal**

My personal favorite is Blueberries for Sal. "Little Bear and Little Sal's mother and Little Sal and Little Bear's mother were all mixed up with each other among the blueberries on Blueberry Hill."

I also have to mention that Make Way for Ducklings was a favorite of John's when he was a child. We also love One Morning in Maine and Homer Price so very, very much.

Helen Oxenbury Clap Hands

I don't know that we ever had any other of her books, but Clap Hands was THE board book that every one of our kids loved when they were little.

Richard Scarry The Best Word Book Ever

Who didn't grow up with the most fun game of finding the different objects on the fabulously detailed and rabbit-covered pages of Richard Scarry's books?

Maurice Sendak. Little Bear

All of my children enjoyed these funny little stories and I appreciated the underlying themes of gratitude and imagination.

Hilda Van Stockum A Day on Skates

Although we love all of her books and illustrations, I think A Day on Skates takes the cake for favorite, especially in the illustration category.

Bill Waterson Calvin and Hobbes

**Garth Williams Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder**

**Pascale Wirth The Selfish Giant and The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde**

When I asked Ria, who has always had a strong sense of beauty, which children's book illustrators had the biggest impact on her as a child, the first one that came to mind for her was Pascale Wirth because of the illustrations in our copies of The Selfish Giant and The Happy Prince.

No Time for Tuesday Tidbits today, but...

2016-06-21T11:36:00.002-05:00

We've been having fun as a family with a new movie blog called 8 Heads are Better Than 1. Please drop by for a visit!

Tuesday Tidbits #7

2016-06-14T10:08:00.002-05:00

Listening To:

Hamilton. I am intrigued.

Grateful For:

Having everyone home for the summer. Though life is crazier in some ways (and everyone tends to stay up too late at night!), the interactions and shared activities, stories, ideas, etc. are really wonderful. For example, we've had a little retro-tech theme going on around here lately. Gus and I have been scanning old family photos and the oldest and youngest kids both got typewriters...

Everything Keeps Coming Up...

Balance. This concept has been on my mind and heart a lot lately. It is really an answer to many problems, including perfectionism, the need to be controlling of everything, and counteracting the effects of consumerism.

The problem of perfectionism, especially has come up in a lot of my reading lately, especially the book on eugenics I'm still working my way through (an important look at history as well as a perspective on many modern issues!) and the solution as presented by Pope Francis: "The world does not become better because only apparently 'perfect' people live there."

I think is also a great perspective:

Most people tend to allow the truth they possess so to dominate their thinking that they see few others truths that place their one truth in perspective and balance it out. There is probably no heresy in the history of the Church that did not have its truth. The problem invariably is that the one truth so took over the heretic’s mind that he was committed to cast out any number of other doctrines that clashed with his interpretation of it. – Fr. Thomas Dubay, Authenticity

Playing:

Nothing new to report here, but I've been spending a lot of time in the garden lately.

Reading:

Still plodding through the same books at the moment. :)

Watching:

I saw Captain America: Civil War a few weeks ago (I went in with a little trepidation, because of the conflict between characters that I like!). It exceeded my expectations, but there was a lot going on that I needed some time to process. Last week I got a chance to watch it a second time (Hurray for Marcus Theaters' $5 Tuesdays!) and was really glad that I did. It's a thoughtful and even important movie and very entertaining too. While movies about good guys fighting bad guys can be inspiring, oftentimes it's the battles we have to fight with ourselves that are the most important.

It is kind of nice to be at a stage where everyone in the family is old enough to watch this kind of movie. It's another fun piece that all of the "kids" (half of whom are adults now!) get to process movies like this together.

Quote I'm Pondering:

One of my favorite essays ever is one by C.S. Lewis on the importance of old books. In it he talks about the blindness everone tends to have to the errors of their own age (I was thinking of this especially in terms of the concept of balance mentioned above:

The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them. (emphasis mine)

Tuesday Tidbits #6

2016-06-07T11:20:00.003-05:00

Well, I missed a week because of Memorial Day. Oh well!

Listening To:

Our teens and some of their friends meet on a weekly basis to work on a capella singing - including both secular and sacred pieces. They worked especially hard in recent months preparing Palestrina's Sicut Cervus and Byrd's Ave Verum to sing with the parish choirs for the Mass of Thanksgiving of our new associate pastor. I think it went really well and it sure was a lot of fun!

I've also been listening to a lot of Matt Maher lately. Favorites include: Abide with Me, Because He Lives, Lay It Down, and Lord, I Need You.

Grateful For:

Graduations! Terri has now graduated from high school and Kate from 8th grade. We had a beautiful high school graduation ceremony with our homeschool group (we tend to pass on the 8th grade graduation ceremonies since our kids have continued to homeschool during high school - but those are also available) and a lovely graduation dance in which all of the graduates were recognized.

Everything Keeps Coming Up...

Family pictures. My parents are celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary this month, so we are tackling the project of scanning the old family slides.

Me meeting the family dog, Patches, upon arriving home from the hospital.

Hanging out with Dad. :)

Playing:

Baseball, Scrabble, Perspective and Sporcle. I don't think there's anything new on the list right now.

Reading:

I started Fr. Michael Gaitley's 33 Days to Merciful Love a few weeks ago. My mom had bought it for me over Easter and one day when I was headed off to Adoration I picked it up on an impulse and decided to check what the recommended starting dates were. (They like you to set it up to finish on an appropriate feast day.) To my surprise and delight, I happened to pick it up on the only day in May (the 27th) that was listed as a recommended starting day.

It's a wonderful little book, very much in the same flavor as 33 Days to Morning Glory and intended as a follow-up to that book. In comfortably short daily readings, it offers a spirituality based on the writings of St.Thérèse of Lisieux which is particularly focused on appreciating how much we need God and how much he loves us.

Watching:

Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ

I've seen this movie reviewed in oddly different ways. As far as I can tell, it works if you can give it an uncynical viewing (and see it through until the end!), but if you try to read other things into it, it just doesn't work.

The movie is about Hollywood of the 1950s. Eddie Mannix (based on a real-life character) has a tough job at the studio holding together a cast of characters starring in various movies who are always getting themselves (and potentially the studio) into all sorts of trouble. With great artistry and a dry sense of humor, the story pokes fun at these various characters (and through them humanity in general) and their petty quirks and problems.

The main movie being produced during the story is an epic story of Christ that looks an awful lot like Ben Hur. The movie studio is anxious to not offend anyone's religious sensibilities (which ends up involving a very witty conversation between Eddie Mannix and a group of religious leaders - a Catholic priest, an Orthodox priest, a Protestant minister and a Jewish Rabbi). Its production is unexpectedly halted by the disappearance of the main star, who has his own set of dramatic and intellectual adventures.

The story climaxes with a beautiful scene from the Ben Hur-like movie which is shown to impact not just the characters within that film, but also those involved in its production.

It's a quirky movie - very different from anything else I've ever seen, but we really enjoyed it.

Quote I'm Pondering:

And if the good God wants you weak and helpless like a child... do you believe that you will have less merit?... Agree to stumble at every step therefore, even to fall, to carry your cross weakly, to love your helplessness. Your soul will draw more profit from it than if, carried by grace, you would accomplish with enthusiasm heroic actions that would fill your soul with personal satisfaction and pride. - St. Thérèse of Lisieux as quoted in 33 Days to Merciful Love

Tuesday Tidbits #5

2016-05-24T08:59:00.003-05:00

Listening To:

We picked up a selection of new music from iTunes in the last week or so, mostly for Ria's birthday. Some of my favorites include Bill Murray singing The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book, On the Road by The High Kings, Just Give Me a Reason by Pink (I wonder how many marriages have been saved by this song!), and Oceans by Hillsong United.

Grateful For:

Getting back to blogging! I am amazed that this is my fifth consecutive week of blogging! I decided to aim for some blogging on Tuesday mornings because that's my one "slow" morning of the week. It seems like having a little structure and a weekly goal is really working for me. I'm now finding myself looking forward to writing a blog post each week!

Everything Keeps Coming Up...

Being outside! Track, baseball, dogs, good weather, and not too many bugs yet. We enjoyed having our associate pastor and his sister over for dinner last week and got to eat outside with them. Father even played a little baseball with Frank. :)

Playing:

We've pulled out our old Perspective timeline board game quite a few times since Gus got back from school. The game consists of historic event cards (pre-divided into four major time periods) and a board game on which the cards are played. Dates are on the back of the card (where you can't see them!) and the goal is to put them in order correctly. Others players can challenge your play and gain or lose cards depending on the wisdom of their challenge.

We've also added a few homemade cards over the years. This has been a family favorite for many years (maybe 10?). We also frequently make some adjustments to make it work better for us, like giving better players extra cards to start out with. I was so delighted to discover, when searching for an image for this post, that this game is now back in print!!! More information here: Perspective... The Timeline Game

Reading:

Nothing new here, really. Still working on Sacramentum Caritatis with the high school catechism class and reading Emma and Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck on my own. Oh, and I've also grown fond of the Catholic website Aleteia.

After watching The Jungle Book, I am really eager to read the book.

Watching:

The Jungle Book

Gus and I went to see this in the theater last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. The music was wonderful - with plenty of nods to the original film. The storyline was terrific. Again, it kept most of the key parts of the animated movie, but without getting stuck in the mud. Bill Murray as Baloo and Christopher Walken as King Louie were fabulous. I loved how they let both actors really play it up as themselves. So fun!!!

The whole movie worked well in so many ways. I love how it portrayed mankind's relationship with nature and the other animals. Nature is beautiful and noble but also can be quite fierce. The animals are both afraid of man and in awe of him. Mowgli (representing mankind), in his turn is weak and vulnerable but also clever in a way that allows him to construct tools and strategies that make up for that deficit. He has the capacity for great destruction, but also for great good.

Quote I'm Pondering:

The Montessorian and the liturgist in me were both made very happy by this quote from Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity) by Pope Benedict XVI:

In the course of the Synod, there was frequent insistence on the need to avoid any antithesis between the ars celebrandi, the art of proper celebration, and the full, active and fruitful participation of all the faithful. The primary way to foster the participation of the People of God in the sacred rite is the proper celebration of the rite itself. The ars celebrandi is the best way to ensure their actuosa participatio. The ars celebrandi is the fruit of faithful adherence to the liturgical norms in all their richness; indeed, for two thousand years this way of celebrating has sustained the faith of all believers, called to take part in the celebration as the People of God, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

So we've talked about the importance of beauty and fidelity in liturgy, but also spent a lot of time talking about perspective. Yes, we want really beautiful liturgies and we should do what we can to help build those up, but first of all, the Mass itself is perfect. Jesus comes to us and we receive the Eucharist and it is amazing! Never lose that most basic piece when thinking about the music or the homily or whatever you didn't really quite like.

It's also essential to remember that liturgies are a very human thing and will never be perfect and God understands that. After all, Jesus came down to earth as one of us and didn't in any sense of the word have the best of everything. I help out at our parish sometimes as a backup liturgist. In my mind this role could be considered to have two basic aspects.

Set things up well to help things go as smoothly as possible, help people be comfortable/prepared for their various roles, etc.
Don't get upset that people will mess up sometimes, babies will cry, etc.

That human aspect can actually be understood as a beautiful part of the liturgy too. I have long felt that a little baby noise makes things better in church. Maybe this is just because we are always praying and offering ourselves to God as seriously flawed individuals. It's good to have a little perspective and sense of humor about this!

One quote that has long been a guiding piece for me in understanding my relationship to the liturgy is 1 Samuel 15:22:

But Samuel said:

“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obedience to the LORD’s command?

Obedience is better than sacrifice,

to listen, better than the fat of rams."

Tuesday Tidbits #4

2016-05-17T09:16:00.001-05:00

Running Through My Head Today:

Good Time by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen and Keep Your Head Up by Andy Grammer

I must admit that I didn't know who Andy Grammer was (though I did know some of his songs) until about a week ago when we found out that John had been given four tickets to the Brewer's Game which included an Andy Grammer post-game concert. The game was a lot of fun (even though the Brewers made the Padres look good, which is really saying something!) but went 12 innings and so the concert started really late - I think after 11. We stayed for 4 or 5 songs and it was a lot of fun.

Grateful For:

Having Gus home! He just finished his Sophomore year at Thomas Aquinas College. There are a lot of changes around here since he was last home and we were particularly excited to have him finally meet Zita! (They hit it off right away.)

Everything Keeps Coming Up...

Getting more active. John has had a Fitbit for awhile now and it has really motivated him to get in better shape. He does a lot of stairs during breaks at work. Terri is interested in becoming an EMT and wants to get in better shape for that, so she bought a Fitbit too. Most of the rest of the family were able to get pedometers on our cell phones and have been eagerly trying to pass the 10,000 steps mark each day. We are all wondering what would happen if we were able to track the steps of Zita the Space Dog. ;)

Playing:

Baseball! Track season is winding down and Little League has started for Kate and Frank. Looks like we'll be rooting for the Cardinals and the Astros this year. :)

Reading:

Aside from all the previously mentioned books that I haven't yet finished, I started re-skimming (i.e. going through the parts I've highlighted on my Kindle) Caryll Houselander's Reed of God. I made a little Marian notebook to try to help process and remember some of the wonderful tidbits from the 33 Days to Morning Glory Consecration and thought some of the choice quotes from Reed of God would be a nice addition. Unfortunately these kinds of things never end up as pretty as I'd like when I start copying out a lot of material (and I had picked out an un-lined notebook, which has its ups and downs) but I think it will be just ride to skim through when I need it.

The Reed of God is probably my favorite book about Mary. It's especially helpful for those who have grown up with misunderstandings about Mary or who have frustrations or misunderstandings about the role of women in the Church and in the world.

Watching:

Whenever our college kids come home, we are eager to share with them all of the movies and what not that they have missed out on since they were last home. For Gus, we started out with Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, which was enjoyed by all. John and I saw it on a whim last summer and were amazed at how much we enjoyed it. The opera sub-theme alone made it worth watching. :) It's the fifth in the Mission Impossible series, but the first one that we had seen. It stands up pretty well on its own. Also, the stunts, which Tom Cruise does himself, are phenomenal.

Other movies on his catch-up list:

The Martian
X-Men (especially Days of Future Past)
Cutthroat Kitchen
Kids' Baking Championship
Captain America: Civil War
Jungle Book

Quote I'm Pondering:

Something I found on Facebook recently:

Love one another.
Jesus; John 13:34

The only remedy against loneliness is communication,
to touch someone, not only physically,
but gladly, joyfully, simply, in a friendly fashion.
It is quite easy if you really love people
but you have to love your brothers and sisters as they are.
Servant of God, Catherine Doherty, 20th century

I was thinking about this partly in terms of how God wants us to help others. Not only do we have to love them as they are, but we also have to remember that our job isn't to change who they are. Even though we need to strive for virtue and good judgment and things like that, we still approach a situation as ourselves, with all of our particular strengths and limitations. (More about that here: Living Differently - Be Who You Are Meant to Be). This is one way in which we can begin to define what we should do and how we can help in a particular situation. But this is also critical to remember in looking at others (and especially our own children!). Everyone has their own strengths and limitations and needs to accept and work within that context. I also find it help to remember (particularly in working to understand and appreciate others) that with certain strengths tend to come certain limitations. Which reminds me of another wonderful quote...

I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others… I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one… And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another… I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me. – The Catechism of the Catholic Church #1937, quoting the Dialogue of Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena

Tuesday Tidbits #3

2016-05-10T09:31:00.000-05:00

Running Through My Head Today:

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes from Cinderella (2015; Lily James) and It is Well With My Soul

Grateful For:

The transitional deacon who has been assigned to our parish for the past two years has been reassigned to our parish as his first assignment after he is ordained to the priesthood in a few weeks. There is a very interesting article about him here: Higher Calling Supplants High Court Dream

Everything Keeps Coming Up...

Mary. Yes, I'm finishing up my (re)consecration to Jesus through Mary with 33 Days to Morning Glory on May 13th. Last time I met with my spiritual director, I had a list of things I was working on and realized that the answer to all of them was to be found in turning to Mary.

This consecration includes 33 days of preparation and prayer timed to be completed on a Marian feast day. (You can view a chart here.) John and I were married on the feast of the Queenship of Mary and did St. Louis de Montfort's Marian consecration leading up to that day.

33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley has a simpler format than the original preparation material (it only takes a few minutes to read each day - and I really look forward to the material) but it is very beautiful and substantial and leaves you with plenty to reflect on each day. It is a very doable devotion for ordinary busy people like me. :)

Playing:

We have really enjoyed the quiz site Sporcle.com over the last few years. We have spent many hours learning basic facts (like Countries of the World and Elements of the Periodic Table), memorizing bits of beautiful poems and speeches (such as St. Crispin's Day Speech from Shakespeare's Henry V, Sam's Speech from The Two Towers and Eisenhower's D-Day Speech) and even working on some basic religious knowledge, such as the Catholic Books of the Bible and the Top 200 Characters in the Bible. We have enjoyed plenty of the more trivial quizzes as well. ;)

By the way, one way to make some of these substantial quizzes more fun is to do them as a group/family. Also, for the ones newer to a quiz, they will often use most of the time themselves and let others help them for the last minute or so. Have fun with it!

Reading:

I am currently reading Jane Austen's Emma and Adam Cohen's Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck. The former is rather light and delightful. The latter is rather heavy (though very readable) and I think will turn out to be an important piece of history and perspective. It is certainly very eye-opening so far (more below on this).

Watching:

We recently watched On the Waterfront and Life is Beautiful. Both are serious and thought-provoking classics that I hadn't seen in many years. I liked both of them more than I had remembered. Most of the kids enjoyed both of them (Frank, in particular, really enjoys substantial, clever and meaty things for his age), but it's not bad to remember that that kind of thing is not everyone's cup of tea. Others opted out of both movies.

I'm quite sure that it's not a matter of superficiality of character. Everyone deals with great stories and the battles between good and evil in different ways. For me, a serious movie with dire struggles against terrible evil can bring comfort and peace because it genuinely applies to the real evils that I'm seeing in the real world. But for me too, there are times when laughter and lightness is the best medicine.

Quote I'm Pondering:

It's really easy for me to whitewash the past and think that the great moral and social dilemmas and crises of our times have no precedence before, say, the 1960s. I imagine it's a part of human nature to glorify the past and look down upon what "kids these days" are doing. This book I'm reading on eugenics is a good antidote to this problem. In every age, people are called upon to stand up for what is right in the midst of terrible societal trends. Back in the 1910s and 1920s in America, eugenics (and especially sterilization of those seen as "unfit") was all the rage to "purify" the human race of unwanted tendencies, like mental disabilities and criminal behavior, which were viewed as genetically fixed for future generations. There's a lot more that could be said on this topic, but here' a little quote about one man who resisted this awful way of looking at people that gives a sense of the complex issues people were struggling with in our country a hundred years ago or so:

There was another way of reading the cases, however: as an expression of general societal unease with eugenic sterilization. There had been enough enthusiasm for sterilization that in a short period of time laws were adopted across the country. Nevertheless, it was now clear that not everyone was caught up in the eugenic mania, and the resistance was not just coming from the courts. In several states, governors vetoed eugenic sterilization laws and delivered strongly worded indictments. Nebraska's governor insisted his state's sterilization bill seemed "more in keeping with the pagan age than with the teachings of Christianity", and he declared in his veto message that "man is more than an animal".

Tuesday Tidbits #2

2016-05-03T09:44:00.000-05:00

Running Through My Head Today:

Weird. I'm not sure that I have a song running through my head this morning.

Grateful For:

Gus and Ria at Mirror Lake in Yosemite

Homeschooling. No, it's not perfect. Nor are any of the other options. And I question myself all the time about it. But the answer keeps coming up that it's been very good for us in many ways and my kids have always thrived with it and been pretty happy with it.

I love the closeness and camaraderie and interconnectedness it allows for.

Frank, Terri and Kate do science

Ria and Gus in college together!

I love how much freedom it gives us to hang out with friends and family of all ages.

Frank and a little cousin

Michelangelo puzzle success with our friend, Joe.

I also love how much space it gives the kids for creativity and developing deep interests and talents.

They love making Halloween costumes!

Easter Cake by Terri, Bernie and Ria (with some help from Tolkien!)

Gus singing with an acapella group in college.

I love the ability to take the family on a three or four week road trip and see a bunch of amazing things in person, like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Pacific Ocean and Meteor Crater. I love that we can pick some of the sites based on the Percy Jackson stories and Pixar's Cars.

We love our homeschool community in which we have found many fast friends and kindred spirits over the years and with whom we have enjoyed many activities, such as singing, group classes, park days, dramatic performances, spiritual activities and lots of just plain fun.

And we love our parish community, with whom we have many close connections, especially because of how they have welcomed us as homeschoolers and fellow Catholics. Besides Mass and the Sacraments and many friendships, we have done lots and lots of choirs and sports (mostly basketball and track) alongside our wonderful parish family. God has blessed us in so many ways!

Kate and her wonderful parish basketball team

Everything Keeps Coming Up...

Theology of the Body. Our youngest two are just finishing up the Theology of the Body for Middle School, which is being taught by my brother-in-law at our local parish. One of the incentives I've given my kids for taking this class (which is eight Friday nights in a row - not the most fun option in the world) is that there are certain movies they are allowed to watch with us after they take the class. Not ones with lurid sex scenes, of course, but certainly ones that get into complex issues relating to marriage and family, such as living together before marriage. The Theology of the Body background plus the opportunities for discussion brought about by some of these movies (which we really like, by the way) help us provide the kids with a wholistic understanding of the Catholic Church's teachings on marriage and the family without a judgmental attitude towards those who make decisions that we would disagree with.

For example, we watched Steve Martin's Cheaper by the Dozen this past week. One of themes present in the story is the oldest daughter living with her boyfriend, against the wishes of her parents. We had a great discussion about why the Church teaches against this partly because of the way they value marriage - to the point that they want each person to enter it in complete freedom, which is compromised by the commitments already present in cohabitation. It bears some similarities to why the Church won't let you get married while you are pregnant - because the expected baby can put extra pressure on the decision to get married. We also talked about how many couples who live together before marriage do so because they came from families that suffered from divorce and believe it will help prevent that kind of relationship (and how, unfortunately, the statistics indicate that this is in fact unhelpful).

Playing:

Still lots of Scrabble around here, of course, but I a great deal of our playing of late has been with the dogs. Did I mention that we have a puppy? Zita is her name (named after Ben Hatke's Zita the Space Girl series, which my kids love). She is a black lab mix and about four months old. She really keeps us hopping but (and perhaps partly because of that) we have no regrets. We had to put our cat down last fall and our older dog is 11 and we have a LOT of energetic kid years left, so we decided it was time for another pet. We got her from our local humane society and were very impressed with the services offered there.

Reading:

I am working my way through the 33 Days to Morning Glory Marian Consecration for my second time. I will be finishing up on May 13th, the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, which also happens to be the anniversary of my first communion.

I just started reading a new book by Bishop Barron called Vibrant Paradoxes: The Both/And of Catholicism. It's a lovely book so far and I particularly enjoy that the essays are substantial, but short.

And after almost ten years (here is my last post on it from our previous reading) we are once again reading Pope Benedict's Sacramentum Caritatis with our homeschool high school catechism class. It an apostholic exhortation on the Eucharist and it is wonderful. It seems like the perfect way to wrap up our year of studying the Mass (we used Ascension Press's Altarations program, which we enjoyed very much).

Watching:

Last night we re-watched Yours, Mine and Ours with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo. Now, I know that this is a corny movie in some ways and the acting is not always the greatest, but I really love this movie. Yeah, it's partly that it's about large families and that it's so gloriously positive about having kids. But that's not really why I love it so much. It has this wonderful irony, which we spent a bit of time discussion during my college years about how someone can intend something for evil but that God can use it for good (or if you're more comfortable with it, it can turn out for the good). In this case, two large families are suddenly thrown together when their parents (both widowed, but had been high school sweethearts) reconnect at a high school reunion and get married before the families have even met. After lots of conflict and angst between the kids of each of the families (who are raised with extremely different styles of parenting), the kids finally get together and scheme to split the parents up. They do terrible (and in some ways funny) things to covertly cause tension in the marriage, but end up coming to a double conversion. 1. Once the kids stop fighting with each other and start working together to a common purpose, they actually start to like each other. 2. They feel remorse for the pain they have caused their parents. So, enough spoilers, but it's a movie I actually end up liking better each time I watch it.

Quote I'm Pondering:

"Mary, lend us your Heart. Bring us the Spirit. Pray that our hardened hearts would burn with love for Jesus. Help set our hearts on fire with love for him." (from 33 Days to Morning Glory)

Tuesday Tidbits #1

2016-04-26T09:05:00.004-05:00

Running Through My Head Today:
Gone, Gone, Gone by Phillip Phillips

Grateful For:
How the value of stories has played out in our family over the years. This is especially obvious with Ria, who wrote her senior thesis on the connection between stories and Salvation History and is now using stories and parts of stories (like movie clips) in her work as a Catholic campus missionary at a state university, and especially in her one-on-one spiritual mentoring of students. Stories are so universal, so applicable, so amazing, so true.

Everything Keeps Coming Up...

Baseball/Jackie Robinson We really enjoy baseball in our family. Though I have assimilated to Wisconsin football-wise (it's hard not to become a Packers fan after living here for more than 20 years), I will never give up my San Francisco Giants. The kids have inherited their baseball loyalties from me, which have certainly been helped along by the Giants' three-time World Series wins in six years! We try to get tickets to see the Giants when they come to Milwaukee (which we manage to pull off about every other year). We were thrilled to get tickets to one of the Giants-Brewers games a few years ago. Before the game, we were trying to make out which player was which when we realized that all of them were wearing the number 42 - it was Jackie Robinson day! We enjoyed how they introduced each player as number 42 throughout the game and it happened to be soon afterwards that the movie 42 was released. It soon became one of our favorite movies.

A few weeks ago, we made it to another Giants-Brewers game, which was a real treat. I told the kids I would pay for my ticket and parking if they paid for their own tickets. Three of them took me up on it and we got a great deal through a community fundraiser. Angel Pagan threw a ball to Frank, who, I'm sure, will remember it for the rest of his life.

Since I was in a baseball mood, I read a lovely children's story, written by Jackie Robinson's daughter, Sharon, called The Hero Two Doors Down, which is the true story of Jackie's friendship with a young neighbor. Then we watched the first half (so far) of Ken Burns' documentary on Jackie Robinson, which worked almost as a special features to the movie 42. My younger kids, who may have had just a little bit too much of the documentary genre in general, were quite engrossed. I especially enjoyed the interviews with Jackie Robinson's wife, Rachel, who seems even more lovely in real life than she was portrayed in the movie.

And we are just about to start Little League season around here. We have two kids who play baseball (and yes, one of them is a girl, who plays mostly with boys - and she is good!) and are looking forward to the upcoming season. As much as I enjoy having my kids play basketball, the intensity of the game, especially since it's indoors and all of the noise and whistles and all bounce off the walls, makes me not entirely unhappy when the season is over. In contrast, I relish the baseball season (well, aside from the mosquitoes). It's really more my speed and it's a wonderful thing to spend all of that time outdoors.

Playing:

Bernie and I have been playing a lot of Scrabble lately. I try not to get involved in computer games because they can be very addictive for me (I seriously need to keep Solitaire off of my computer!), but Scrabble works out pretty well. I play it through Facebook and usually have about a dozen games going. Because I have to wait for the other players, it's a reasonably limited amount of time at each sitting and it's good fun. I especially enjoy kibitzing with Bernie. I also learn a lot from the teacher. We also discovered that the British dictionary is a lot of fun to play with. Bernie takes it to another level entirely, but playing some games in languages she doesn't speak, like French.

Reading:

I recently finished Miracles from Heaven by Christy Todd Beam. I got interested in the story after reading the movie review by Bishop Robert Barron: "Miracles from Heaven" and the Problem of Theodicy. I really enjoyed the book. The adjective that keeps coming back to me with regard to the book is genuine. Though I do believe the miracle to be genuine, I'm thinking of this terms especially with regards to how this mother shares the most intimate story of the suffering of her child (as well as the whole family) and their relationship with God. I especially appreciate that they aren't trying to put on a show or clean things up to improve the story. The little details of real family life in an imperfect world are poignant and much appreciated. I have not yet seen the movie, but am very much looking forward to it.

I also just finished (well, unless you count all the Appendices!) Fr. Michael Gaitley's The Second Greatest Story Ever Told: Now is the Time of Mercy. He interweaves the stories (and highlights the connectedness) of the apparitions of Fatima, St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy Devotion, St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. John Paul the Great. It encourages devotion to both Divine Mercy and the Blessed Mother as the double-solution for bringing ourselves and the world to Christ. It makes especially great background reading for the 33 Days to Morning Glory Marian Consecration (by the same author). Though I was generally familiar with all of the stories, there were a lot of interesting pieces that I had never heard before.

Though I enjoyed the casual, conversational tone of the text, I especially appreciated the numerous quotes from the key players in the story.

Watching:

X-Men: The kids got us a set of four of the X-Men movies for Easter. (And we have since borrowed or bought several more.) None of us had watched any of them previously. On the whole, we are really enjoying them, with Days of Future Past a clear favorite, probably followed by X-2. We especially enjoyed the interplay of personalities, the batting around of philosophical concepts, the playfulness and the character development in Days of Future Past. I believe all of the movies have been rated PG-13, with some a little heavier on the violence and mature content than others. Wolverine was particularly violent. Some of the kids think we could have just skipped it and not missed much.

Cutthroat Kitchen: We have long been fans of Alton Brown, since being introduced many years ago by Karen Edmisten. Since we don't have cable, it was only during a hotel stay a few months ago that we discovered Alton's newer cooking game show (which has apparently been out for quite awhile). We've never really gotten into the chef reality shows with all their drama and angst, though we've seen a few bits here and there. Despite the name, this is more light-hearted, interesting and, believe it or not, inspiring. Each show starts with four chefs. There are three rounds of cooking and one chef gets eliminated in each round. Alton Brown names a dish (which are mostly very familiar dishes, some of them surprisingly so, for example: taquitos, lobster roll, chocolate cake, chili cheese dog and breakfast sandwich), they have one minute to shop in a special "pantry" and then a limited amount of time to cook. Chefs get to bid on sabotages to inflict on each other and a food critic decides which chef to eliminate at the end of each round without knowing anything of the sabotages.

This is a very engrossing show and interesting for a lot of reasons. First of all, the chefs are of a very high caliber, so their creativity in working around the sabotages is really quite fascinating. Just watching them cook tends to inspire us to try new dishes and more interesting (and real!) ingredients and generally spend more time in the kitchen.

The human nature element of the show is really interesting too. First of all, it's rather amusing at how

An example of a sabotage: making crepes on a seriously warped pan.

the chefs who brag the most not only attract a lot of the sabotages, but often end up self-sabotaging by forgetting key ingredients in the pantry. It's also rather amazing at how often sabotages seem to backfire against the one who inflicted them.

Finally, Alton Brown is a really interesting and funny guy. His little comments and antics keep the show funny and light and we really enjoy his side comments about what good and bad ideas the chefs are trying out. We've been watching this on Netflix, but have also very much enjoyed the after shows on You Tube in which Alton and various judges try out some of the sabotages.

Quote I'm Pondering:

Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that he can kiss you. Do you understand, brothers, sisters, or whoever you may be? Suffering, pain, humiliation - this is the kiss of Jesus. At times you come so close to Jesus on the cross that he can kiss you. I once told this to a lady who was suffering very much. She answered, "Tell Jesus not to kiss me - to stop kissing me." That suffering has to come that came in the life of Our Lady, that came in the life of Jesus - it has to come in our life also. Only never put on a long face. Suffering is a gift from God. It is between you and Jesus alone inside. - Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta as quoted in 33 Days to Morning Glory by Fr. Michael Gaitley

Enjoy your day!

2016-02-10T12:49:00.002-06:00

On Living Differently today, a guest essay by Karen Edmisten and a book giveaway!

I highly recommend this terrific little book for those who wish to share their faith with others – especially with their family and friends. Karen is an atheist-turned-Catholic who shares in this book many common aspects of the conversion journey through her own experiences and those of a number of her friends. These stories are organized around a very practical set of “do’s” and “don’ts” that will help readers be better prepared to witness to and support those who are being drawn to the faith. Karen’s tone is gentle and friendly (and prayerful!), but not at all timid about tackling many important issues, concepts, teachings, relationships and potential misunderstandings. The end result is a very great set of connections to help believers be more loving, patient, understanding and supportive of others. - AVH

New Project for the Year of Mercy

2015-12-08T07:04:00.001-06:00

Please check out my new project for the Year of Mercy at Livesdifferently.org

The Dawn Treader by Bernie

2015-08-25T16:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning, Bernie (age 15) asked if she could use some leftover paint from the girls' room for a painting. I consented. I didn't really understand what she wanted it for, nor why she painted the top portion of the canvas black and the bottom portion "room" color to start with. This morning she and Kate hung the finished canvas above the bunk bed and called me in to see it. I feel pretty confident that C.S. Lewis would approve. ;)

Some Science of Gratitude

2015-08-15T17:53:00.000-05:00

I enjoy finding science-based information that confirms things I already subscribe to because of my religious beliefs. The intersections and commonality are fascinating and they help me understand a concept better and reinforce its importance to me. Today I was trying to learn more about gratitude when I stumbled upon this article.

Gratitude doesn’t make problems and threats disappear. We can lose jobs, we can be attacked on the street, we can get sick. I’ve experienced all of those things. I remember those harrowing times at unexpected moments: My heart beats faster, my throat constricts. My body wants to hit something or run away, one or the other. But there’s nothing to hit, nowhere to run. The threats are indeed real, but at that moment, they exist only in memory or imagination. I am the threat; it is me who is wearing myself out with worry.
That’s when I need to turn on the gratitude. If I do that enough, suggests the psychological research, gratitude might just become a habit. What will that mean for me? It means, says the research, that I increase my chances of psychologically surviving hard times, that I stand a chance to be happier in the good times. I’m not ignoring the threats; I’m appreciating the resources and people that might help me face those threats.

Read the rest here... The Six Habits of Highly Grateful People by Jeremy Adam Smith

I enjoyed this one too: Gratitude Practice Explained, from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence

Inside Out!

2015-07-16T13:54:00.000-05:00

I finally got a chance to see Inside Out a few days ago. Wow, great movie but very intense in some ways. I wondered how much the younger side of Pixar fans would "get" it. There's so much to process from the movie that I almost feel like I have to watch it a second time before blogging on it properly.

I will say that I really, really liked it. So many great concepts, illustrations that line up well with our understanding of the brain and thoughtful, clever details in an engaging and believable story. Do watch it if you get a chance.

Three Books I'm Excited About Right Now...

2015-07-16T11:30:00.000-05:00

I haven't finished reading any of the following books yet, but felt ready to start talking about them anyway.

Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential - and Endangered, is written by the same team as The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog.
It follows the brain science, interwoven with many personal stories, about how people learn and develop the essential trait of empathy. Empathy is woven into the very fabric of our being, but basically, we learn empathy by being loved by our parents (and other caregivers) from the time we are tiny infants. This tends to happen naturally, as our responses as parents are also practically automatic. The consequences of not receiving this normal loving care (such as those raised in orphanages in Russia and Romania) are serious, but can be addressed to some extent. (Not only empathy, but also things like IQ, immunity to disease and physical balance are related to the nurturing most babies receive at a very young age.)

One part of the book I particularly enjoyed was about a woman who founded an organization that helps schoolchildren learn empathy. Just hearing about how this woman grew up was fascinating.

If we are all born for love, Roots of Empathy founder Mary Gordon was delivered into some of the most fertile ground imaginable. She grew up in Newfoundland, in a multigenerational household that included her three brothers and one sister, both of her grandmothers, and an uncle who was intellectually disabled. Her parents also often took in "strays." Unmarried women who'd gotten pregnant would live with them during their pregnancies, men leaving prison would visit nightly for a free meal. Gordon's father eventually served as the Canadian minister of labor,a dn her mother was an artist. The Catholic family was deeply committed to social justice. AT the dinner table, the rule was that the conversation must focus on ideas - literature, policy, religion, philosophy - not gossip or mundane events. But the table rang out with laughter and spirited debate: this didn't produce sullen resentment.

How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott Haims has been a wonderful read so far. The author is a former Stanford dean who has also experienced the challenges of today's parenting norms from raising her own children. This has led to a easy-to-read (with lots of laugh-out-loud and ah-ha moments) practical guide to what's wrong with parenting (and related issues such as the "College Admissions Arms Race"), how it's affecting our children and what we can do about it.

Her suggestions seem much more manageable than overwhelming. To give you a sense of it, here is a list of "How to Let Your Kid Play" (though, in the book, each item is detailed with information and suggestions):

Value free play.
Know your kid.
Create agreements with other parents.
Offer materials and equipment that foster imaginative play.
Let your kid decide how and what to play.
Work on creating space between you and your kid.
Develop a capacity to wince but not to pounce.
Create a culture of free outdoor play.
Get inspired.
Encourage change in your community.
Model play.

I figured that even reading some of the crazy helicopter-parenting stories aloud to my kids would help ensure that I wouldn't imitate such behavior. ;)

I am also looking forward to reading her suggestions in upcoming chapters (I'm about half-way through) on teaching life skills, teaching them to think, preparing them for hard work, letting them chart their own path and listening to them. Good stuff!

Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein's Letters to and from Children just arrived in the mail yesterday. Looking forward to having a little downtime for savoring it. (A girl can dream, right?)

A Few Great Quotes (and pictures of pretty notebooks) for Your Day

2015-07-14T21:06:00.001-05:00

I've been collecting quotes in a lovely commonplace book (from Paperblanks, pictured above on the left) for a number of years now (and collecting quotes in places all over for many years before that). I enjoy both collecting them and reading over them occasionally. The first book contains a variety of quotes, including a lot of spiritual ones.

Recently I decided to start a separate commonplace book for quotes having to do with education, people, culture, etc. (it's a pretty wide field). That's the one pictured above on the right and in the open book picture below.

I really love these beautiful books and find that the beauty itself motivates me to write in them and read through them more often.

So I've been piecing these quotes together from all over, especially in preparation for my trip to Denver this weekend (and for use with some of my talks at the Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educator's Conference there). Thought I'd share a few of the quotes here...

Dear friends, may no adversity paralyze you. Be afraid neither of the world, nor of the future, nor of your weakness. The Lord has allowed you to live in this moment of history so that, by your faith, his name will continue to resound throughout the world.

- Pope Benedict XVI, Madrid, August 2011

The sacramental imagination gets the world into proper focus... G.K. Chesterton insisted that Catholicism was about thick steaks, cigars, pubs, and laughter. Catholicism is more than that, of course. but it's also that and to miss that is to miss something crucial in the Catholic world. The Catholic world isn't nervous about is legitimate pleasures. In fact, it's a world in which those pleasures can be fully enjoyed because they're understood for what they really are - anticipations of the joy that awaits us in the kingdom of God. And that, I suggest, is a lot more appealing than granola-and-Corona-Lite gnosticism.

- George Weigel

The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a child's home. - William Temple

If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. - Abigail Van Buren

Education should no longer be mostly imparting knowledge, but must take a new path, seeking the release of human potentials. - Maria Montessori

For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain. - Dorothy Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning

In the absence of any other proof, my thumb alone would convince me of God's existence. - Sir Isaac Newton

Children trying out new things are like plants putting out little green shoots. We must be careful not to cut them off. - John Holt

In studying nature we have not to inquire how God the creator may, as He freely wills use His creatures to work miracles and thereby show forth His power: we have rather to inquire what Nature with its immanent causes can naturally bring to pass. - St. Albert the Great

With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of His own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in His creative power. - Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists

It is important for us to live Christianity and to think as Christians in such a way that it incorporates what is good and right about modernity - and at the same time separates and distinguishes itself from what is becoming a counter-religion. - Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World

Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him. - Booker T. Washington

Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas... We must sustain a child's inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food. Charlotte Mason, Parents and Children

The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. – Catechism of the Catholic Church #2469

Respect all reasonable forms of activity in which the child engages and try to understand them. - Maria Montessori

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. - Emily Dickinson

Movie Music Fun

2015-04-23T10:39:00.002-05:00

There's a lot of fun and interesting movie music out there, and we've collected some on iTunes over the years. Recently, I put a bunch more together for an upcoming road trip and thought it might be fun to share some of our favorites here. (We've also been enjoying playing "Name that Tune" with some of these songs, as well as some we were able to find on YouTube.) Oh, and I didn't shy away from a few television shows and operas too.

"Main Title" from The King and I
"Overture" from Lawrence of Arabia
"Jeeves and Wooster" (from the album The World of Jeeves and Wooster)
"Downton Abbey - The Suite" (The Chamber Orchestra of London)
"One Small Fact" from The Book Thief (by John Williams)
"Theme from Jurassic Park" (by John Williams)
"Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter (by John Williams)
"Still Dream" from Rise of the Guardians (with Renee Fleming)
"Calling the Guardians" from Rise of the Guardians

"Overture" (Prelude) from Carmen (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Leonard Bernstein)
"Special Order" from Ratatouille - Michael Giacchino
"Theme from the Magnificent Seven" by Elmer Bernstein
"Main Title" from The Great Escape by Elmer Bernstein

"Driving" from Driving Miss Daisy by Hans Zimmer

The Bridge on the River Kwai - "Colonel Bogey's March"

Ben-Hur - "Parade of the Charioteers"
"The Pink Panther"
"Somewhere in Time"
Raiders of the Lost Ark - "The Raiders' March"
"Le Festin" from Ratatouille
"Down to Earth" from Wall-E by Peter Gabriel
"He's a Pirate" from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
"Captain America" by Alan Silvestri
"The Avengers" by Alan Silvestri
"Kingdom Dance" from Tangled by Alan Menken
"Band of Brothers Theme" by Michael Kamen
"Non Nobis, Domine" from Henry V by Patrick Doyle
"Now We Are Free" from Gladiator by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard
"The Hanging Tree" from Mockingjay by James Newton Howard
"Jessica's Theme" from The Man from Snowy River by Bruce Rowland
"Married Life" from UP! by Michael Giacchino
"Gabriel's Oboe" from The Mission by Ennio Morricone
"Test Drive" from How to Train Your Dragon by John Powell
"Main Title" from Singing in the Rain
"Who is She" from Cinderella by Patrick Doyle
"Bistro Fada" from Midnight in Paris by Stephane Wrembel
"My Father's Favorite" from Sense and Sensibility by Tony Hymas et al.
"Around the World, Pt. 1" from Around the World in 80 Days by Victor Young

Plus, I forgot some of our all time favorite albums of movie music:

Meet the Robinsons Soundtrack
Sleepless in Seattle Soundtrack
You've Got Mail Soundtrack
Disney/Pixar Greatest

It's funny how some of the songs bring back many memories besides just those of the movies themselves.

My parents like to affectionately refer to me and my six siblings as "The Magnificent Seven", so of course that soundtrack is our theme song. :)

Also, Golfredo Corradetti, my amazing high school music teacher at Kolbe Academy, had us watch part of Somewhere in Time during class one time because he liked the theme song, which I think is based on (or mostly composed of?) Rachmaninov's "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini: Variation No. 18".
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And I just noticed that ClassicFM.com has a whole section on film music.

Our New Family Tree Wall

2015-04-14T09:25:00.004-05:00

Our New Family Tree Wall

I've been dreaming of doing a photo-family-tree-wall for a number of years. When the kids were little, we made photo boards that we called cousin charts, so they would have some visual memory of the cousins who live far away and are easy to get confused about over time. Well, that same problem hasn't gotten any easier over the years, especially as those cousins have gotten married and had kids of their own!

I found a picture frame wall cling set at Target a year or so ago (bought three sets). Most of the frames were too big and there were more leaves than frames for my liking, but I finally just started cutting things up and using leaves to hold pictures and it seems to be working just fine. Also, it's a narrow hallway, so I like not having frames hanging on nails.

The whole thing still needs some work, but, I think, it includes everyone but the latest Van Hecke great-nephew who was born just last week. I put the Lawlesses (my side of the family) on one half of the wall and the Van Heckes on the other - my parents and my husband's parents all the way down to their great grandchildren.

Some day, I would also like to put historical family trees up somewhere. Family history is something I've long been fascinated by.

Yesterday was a big day!

2015-04-01T07:29:00.000-05:00

Ria defending her thesis!

Ria successfully defended her senior thesis on Salvation History as the exemplar cause of every story. Wish I could have been there! Gus obligingly sent this picture. :)

Family Singing Repertoire 2: Intermediate Songs

2015-03-27T07:49:00.001-05:00

Singing Irish songs (and performing Irish dance) with some friends for St. Patrick's Day at a local nursing home, circa 2008.

Well that was fun! It all started with our choir learning Palestrina's Sicut Cervus, which has been a tough song for them to learn. It seems to be coming together just in time to sing it for the Easter Vigil. (It is one of the psalms for Easter Vigil). But in the course of preparing for it, we discovered the series of YouTube videos that highlights one part at a time to help you learn it. (Here's the Soprano one.) It was the kids were having so much fun learning multiple parts on this that got me thinking about collecting our singing repertoire. And then yesterday, we had a great time listening to the recordings of some of the songs that I shared in yesterday's post (as well as breaking out into Rambles of Spring randomly after dinner).

It's difficult to quantify the different songs. We obviously have had kids in different age ranges all singing songs together for years, so this is just a very rough approximation.

More Challenging Rounds (or Round-ish songs):

Dona Nobis Pacem

Non Nobis Domine (from Kenneth Branaugh's Henry V) - Awfully fun and epic (and not too hard) to sing if you can figure out the two parts.

Magnificat (I'm not sure where this came from as we learned it from someone who learned it at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago. This is the best recording I was able to find, but we do not sing it this fast! It can be sung in up to six parts.)

Jubilate Deo

To Portsmouth, to Portsmouth, it is a Gallant Town (unable to find a recording of this one so far)

Great Tom is Cast (weird recording, but a good way to learn it, I suppose!)

When Jesus Wept

Per Crucem

More Irish Favorites:

Mountain Dew

Winds of the Morning

Christmas Favorites: (many of which we can sing in parts as a family or with some friends)

The Angel Gabriel (I first discovered this via Sting's rendition on A Very Special Christmas album, the arrangement we use can be downloaded for free at this link)

O Come Divine Messiah (We first learned this via a Christmas Album by the Barra MacNeils - the version we learned as a family was the slightly different OCP arrangement)

Maria Walks Amid the Thorn

Stay tuned for more on this list as I am able to remember them!

I'd like to dedicate this series of posts to all of our family's musical mentors, teachers and choir directors, especially my mom, my siblings (with a special shout-out to Darlene!), Emma Napoli, Michael Morris, Golfredo Corradetti, William Mahrt, Mark Donnelly, Stephen Grimm, Peter Kwasniewski, Kay Moen, Ginny Smith, Deborah Coleman, Max Van Hecke, Julie Farrell, Danny Grimm and Susan Switalski.