Reason #18 Just War

So the other day Alexander and I were chatting about David and Goliath. He told me David cut his head off, I said that I didn't remember that part of the story so we looked it up and of course he was right. We then read about how he carried the head around town for a while after. Alexander asked what everyone did after that so we talked briefly about how the loser was supposed to be the others slave etc.

Anyway, he later came up to me a little troubled about fighting and how that worked with me telling him that it is wrong to hurt other people and fight. So we talked briefly (he is only 6) about how there is criteria for what fights are worth fighting and considered just.

I thought about and realized that this is somewhere that Catholic schools are really lacking. Growing up as a girl, I could never get into the wars. The violence, loss of life and blood shed was just too much for my heart to handle so I memorized, regurgitated for the test and moved on. I still don't know much about a single war. What would have been fascinating and helped me see through all the bloodshed (and I am guessing would help other sensitive children) is for the discussion to also include an analysis of whether the war was just or not. I know this might seem like a lot to ask of a teacher, but it will definitely be the way that my children are presented information about wars. The church has laid out very specific criteria for a war to be considered just and how we view the answers to the criteria can be a little gray but worth an interesting discussion and doesn't allow for the memorize and regurgitate that I think so many children view school subjects as today.

My Middle Child

So Dominic decided that he was going to take a bath and then changed his mind. Since he already was already naked, Alexander suggested maybe he should just get dressed (it is only 2:30pm). Dominic said, "okay but can someone else get me clothes, I don't really like going up and down in the same day." referring to the stairs he would have to climb to get clothing. I think he needs to buy a ranch house when he grows up.

Note: he is still standing in the bathroom naked and probably freezing b/c he doesn't want to walk all the way upstairs.

God Bless Dominic (and whoever he marries).

Too funny not to share...

So the question remains, paid off or threatened?

"When U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald announced in spring 2003 that he would not run for re-election in 2004, the Bush administration approached Edgar about running for the seat. Due to his overwhelming popularity that still exists today, Edgar was seen as a very formidable Senate candidate.

Edgar seemed likely to enter the race, but he suddenly announced he would not seek the seat, saying instead that he was giving his wife an early Mother's Day gift. His medical problems (he had recently undergone heart surgery) were also cited. The Senate seat eventually went to Democrat Barack Obama."

Just can't trust those Chicago politicians. I was looking into it and 3 out of 5 former IL Governors have been arrested, one of the other ones had a policy he made that only allowed for republicans to have state jobs go to the supreme court. The fifth is Jim Edgar. So the question remains was he paid off or threatened?

Coffee banner to the right

Just a note lest you thing my last post was in vein, the coffee banner on the right is coffee sold by monks to help them raise the money they need to spend the whole day in prayer for the greater good of the rest of us. They have some regular/flavored varieties as well as an organic/fair trade and they are all exceptionally yummy.

Reason #17 Santa Claus

So today I read in the paper that retail sales have been the worse they have been since 1969 this Christmas Season. As a retailer, it has me a little worried as I have bills to pay that will inevitably come out of family savings instead of sales, but as a Catholic I am ecstatic. How I would love for every family to get one special gift from the heart and that be all. The twist that our culture has put on St. Nicolas who started by giving to people who had NOTHING is amazing. We have used it to bribe children for our own parental gain (naughty or nice anyone), but last time I checked St. Nicolas did what he did out of a love for God's children not to reward the good and punish the bad. I keep hoping that people's worry this year and reduced spending will bring to light that they didn't really need all of that stuff to make the Christmas season special. There is no greater gift than the gift that God gave us and Mary lovingly accepted on Christmas day (well she accepted it 9 mos early, but I digress).

I have dreams of lighting candles in the snow, stringing popcorn (or eating popcorn with a string and needle in hand), and a celebration of Holy Mass instead of oodles of presents that will fall apart and be in next years garage sale.

Advent 2008

I am so excited for advent this year. I really want to use this as the purple season that it was meant to be. I have all of the Christmas presents wrapped and distributed so except for writing Christmas cards, we have nothing to do but prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord as an infant. We are still trying to figure out our whirlwind tour for Christmas when really I just want to spend the time at home with my beautiful family. I did decide that after this year we only do Christmas visiting after Christmas so that Advent can remain the time of preparation that it is supposed to be.

My prayer for this advent is that every day my soul can truly "Proclaim the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant."

May every day we look at the blessings that God has given us as "favor on his lowly servant." May our culture someday view the conception of a baby as a reason to proclaim the Lord's greatness and blessing rather then a punishment.

24 posts in 7 days???

So my goal of having 40 reasons by Thanksgiving has failed miserably. Oh well such is life. Maybe it will happen by Christmas.

Life has just been a little crazy around here trying to get a website redone and getting a conference planned that I haven't had as much time as I would like to quietly reflect.

I guess I am also a little concerned as to what the next 8 years will look like as I try to save up for my children to go to college and our government is run by a party that has their hearts in the right place but aren't exactly financially savvy. I just hope that either we don't get sick or that Obama's health care plans are better implemented then Blagojevich did in Illinois as that was a complete disaster. I really love to give my husbands hard earned money away, but I don't like it when the government tells me where I need to give it so that has me a little concerned too. I think that takes all of the fun out of tithing when you don't know where it is going and what they are doing with it.

Reason #16 Phil 2:5-11

Okay so this is way later then I said it was going to be, but I have been sick and then I had to catch up on everything that didn't happen while I was sick (somehow cleaning my kitchen comes after updating my blog).

For those of you that do the Divine Office, you will notice how often this reading comes up it is a frequent reminder of the importance of the bridgegroom to be humble and accept death for it is said of the ultimate bridgegroom"he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross." It was never about him. He didn't come for himself or his own self promotion, rather he came to serve taking the form of a slave.

It is this line, however, that in light of reading some of John Paul II's Theology of the Body that just wows me:

"Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God,
something to be grasped."

Just as we are also in the form of God, we are not to deem ourselves equal to God making decisions that only God should have the power to make. We are not to grasp wisdom like Adam did in the Garden, but rather empty ourselves and become obedient to the one true Master. In these current times, I am reminded that "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven." This is true for the Catholic Church as much as it is true for us. Let us educate ourselves in why the Catholic Church teaches the morals it does on both marriage and importance of respecting life as well as praying for those who unknowingly usher slander against her without understanding the complete teaching.

Reason #15 Liturgical Cycle again

I am just completely amazed. I read the first three lines of today's first reading: "My beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling." It then goes on to say "For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life, so that my boast for the day of Christ may be that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. But, even if I am poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with all of you. In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me."

So 2000 years ago, the world was living in a crooked and perverse generation. Is there any hope of change or do we just alter the crookedness and perversion? Are we as Americans saving the lives of soldiers but negotiating the lives of the generation and children that will never be? There was no winning answer and there could not be a winner yesterday, either way we as Americans would loose. However, we are provided hope that through our sacrificial service we will share in the joy of heaven. Let us turn our eyes to the eternal Communion of Saints where the only true Ruler is in charge and remember what my newest close friend (St. Teresa of Avila) said:

Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
compassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Reason #14 Daily Mass

So every four years we all ponder what the next four years will look like. What types of changes will happen and how will they affect us. We look for leadership and direction but are often disappointed as no one person can ever be the perfect leader for our country. No one human being will ever be a perfect human being except for the only human that was both fully human and fully divine. So after a day of concern and worry over what the future of our country will look like, I went to mass and heard the parable of the Good Shepherd (John 10) that I read so often to the kids in the Atrium for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. This time I noticed something that either we exclude from what we read the children or has never struck me (I need to check my album page to find out). The full reading says:

"I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep."

I had recently read a study that proved that nonprofit organizations run by volunteers are more effective than for profit or governmental agencies because the people are doing the work out of a love and concern for the cause not for a paycheck or their greater good or pride. I could go on for pages about how this passage makes my concern for formal public education starting at birth even more worrisome, but alas I have crabby kids.

Lord to you, I am ever faithful and in you alone will my heart always be full of joy even when my mind is not happy.

On a side note, it is funny that these were not the right readings for the day. The actual reading for today was supposed to be Phil 2:5-11 I will blog tomorrow about the actual readings from today as they are one of my favorite. And everytime I read them I praise God for the gift of David Rodriquez whose voice is always the voice my mind reads them in.

Reason #12 Making it your own & Reason #13 finding souls

Happy Halloween! As a Catholic I am happy to say Halloween also pronounced All Hallow's Eve. One thing the Catholic Church has done over the last 2000 years is to not proclaim others wrong or sinners (note the capital "C" in church, this does not include individual misguided Catholics but the magistarium) but to bring Christ into what they already believe hence our current tradition of Halloween which while it does have roots in pagan rituals of remembering dead people became a Christian celebration of the eve before all Soul's Day. On this All Hallow's eve let us remember what it really means and not try to change it to "Holyween" as I have seen some churches do for All Hallow's Eve as it is already Holy and it is important to remember and pray for the soul's that have gone before us. Prayer is outside of time as God is outside of time, so please pray that every soul may find the happiness that comes from God's loving embrace. The Christian fight isn't about who is right and who is wrong (all though their are truths in the world), it is about precious souls finding peace and rest for all of eternity. This needs to be a war fought with prayer and love, never weapons and hatred. For Jesus commands us: "put on all the armour of God" (Eph 6.11) And from the 15 promises of the Mary, "The Rosary shall be a powerful armour against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies." With Christ as our shield and the rosary as our sword, let us wage a battle for souls. I am going to put my rosary where my computer keys are. Have a great Hallow eve!

Session Ideas

I am giving a conference session on "Saving Green by Going Green" in a week and a half. I have a bunch of ideas, but I thought I would see what other people can come up with. So give me your suggestions.

Reason #11 The Liturgy

So as a mother of three small boys sitting in a pew by ourselves each Sunday (Brandon is playing guitar again). I am so very grateful for the regularity of the liturgy. It makes it easier for a mother to mentally jump in and out as her children's needs fluctuate. My favorite story was on one particular Sunday we had a couple of books in the pew so of course Dominic and Xavier found it necessary to both want the same book at the same time. I was busy being the peacemaker and missed a chunk of the homily. I get the book problem solved and jump back into the homily to hear the priest saying something to the extent of "just like children can be in a room full of toys and insist on fighting over the same one" I thought, well I guess I didn't miss anything at all and maybe Fr. Dusty was looking in our pew and came up with that at the spur of the moment (but I don't think so).

I love that as profound and complete as the liturgy is, it is so complete that it recognizes that we are mere humans we need repetition in our lives, we need musical breaks, we need to stand up, sit down and kneel to keep the blood flowing in our hearts and minds open. We need to be able to put the needs of our children before our own needs and wants.

Reason #10 Render to Caesar

So this reason isn't specifically Catholic but I do love how the 3 year liturgical cycle always seems exactly dead on to where we all need to focus. I seriously need to stop reading anything but the comics in the newspaper. So today I made the sad mistake of reading the paper while enjoying my breakfast. On one page it was all about the education reform ideas of Obama and McCain. My stomach was greatly disturbed to see how much money our future president is going to put into having free public education start at birth. Has anyone actually thought about what is the best for the child? Is encouraging more women to put their newborn baby in formal education really the best in the complete development of the child. There is not a single study that thinks so, but we will be rendering billions of dollars into this new educational ideology while we still provide little to no support (financial management or emotional) for people to live on one income. So then I make the next mistake to flip a few pages further and find out that the city of Evansville has officially decided to give a bunch of tax breaks to Mead Johnson (aka Enfamil). I am not sure how our town things this is a good economic decision, but there you have it.

Greatly disturbed by all of these uses of my money, I remind myself that in this life we must render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. This doesn't mean I should just say oh well and let the government spend money however it feels like, but I need to not let it take over my joy. I am reminded that I need to lay my soul and my life before the Lord and He will take care to provide in me and my family what is truly important for a deep seeded happiness that can not be found in the world of Caesar.

Reason #9 Sense of Humor

So Alexander has his first loose tooth. In looking into who the patron saint of teeth is, I was refreshingly reminded of how seemingly twisted some of the patron saint stories are. You may have already guessed it, but yes, she became patroness of dentist and tooth aches b/c while being tortured for her chastity and loyalty to Christ, she had all of her teeth ripped out of her mouth. This is up there with St. Lawrence being patron saint of cooks b/c as he was being burned at the stake, he said turn me over the other side isn't done yet. It is really disturbing the methods of torture these saints endured to profess being a Christian. I often wonder if I would be strong enough to endure what they did. It does however, also remind me that we need to keep a good sense of humor in life knowing that God is always in control. There is a banquet that awaits all who love him and if we keep our eyes set on the goal, maybe we too can have the same beautiful sense of peace and humor that the saints that lived before us did.

Reason #8 Monstrances

As a child, I would sit in awe of the selfless and giving love of the man nailed to the cross for the redemption of my soul. There was no greater love than the crucifixion of my Lord. What I didn't realize was that that was only half the story. To understand the fullness of His love, beautifully proclaimed in the Catholic Church, meant to understand the nuptial union He called me to. The complete gift of Himself that he gave for my consumption as a consummation to hold his perfect body in my imperfect body. This is the greatest gift I have ever been given. My heart races, my eyes tear at the mere thought of his perfect gift of self. With this perfect image of his gift of body , my heart races as a bride on her wedding night in awe and admiration of the beauty of her beloved's nakedness. It is a love that holds nothing back and hides nothing from His bride. Lord, you lay naked before us as your brides with a trust and love that we will return your complete gift of self and allow our souls to be naked before you as we once were and we anticipate to be again in your kingdom.

Deep Thoughts by Dominic John

1. Last night as we lay in bed, Dominic informs me that "everyone in the family loves monkeys except for Alexander because Alexander likes jaguars and they eat monkeys. "

2. A few weeks ago Alexander wanted to play "school" with Dominic. The conversation went something like this.

A: We are going to play school. I am going to be the teacher and you are going to be the student so you have to do to everything I say.

D: I only do what God tells me to do.

So right there folks, my son has figured out the truth to pure joy and he isn't even five yet. I reiterate: "Four things are among the smallest on the earth, and yet are exceedingly wise: Ants - a species not strong, yet they store up their food in the summer. Proverbs 30:25

Reason #7 Ecstasy Part I

I meant to post this on the Feast of St. Teresa of Avila, but alas, here it finally is. I am not sure I can say much more than wow. Who wouldn't want to be in the same faith as someone with that expression derived out of her prayer and the fullness of the bride/bridgegroom consummation? I love being part of a faith that recognizes that God is calling us into a great love affair. It is in the anticipation of perfect union with him one day that the trials and tribulations of marriage are brought to fulfillment and meaning.

It's amazing...

First read this. So in a time of financial stress for many Americans my local newspaper actually stated how great it is that Mead Johnson (aka Enfamil) will be growing their plant and how great this will be for the Evansville community. I am completely astounded that they are praising this company during a time of financial crunch for many of our poor. It is incredible that our city is considering giving a tax cut to help them continue stealing money from the poor by selling & marketing subpar nutrition against all of the ethics codes of the World Health Organization. Just think how greatly this will affect our economy as we continue to need more health care expenses to cover these poor children who have not been given so many of God's great things and we are even going to charge them lower taxes to do so! I am completely speechless which is why this is rambling and probably not making much sense.

If a mommy checks the mail...

based on the book "If you give a mouse a cookie".

If a mommy checks the mail, she will notice that their is a huge pile of dumped trash and paper scraps all over her living room floor. When she goes to the front porch to put the paper scraps in the recycling, she will notice her children left play towels all over it and they should probably be washed since there are mice living out there. After placing the towels at the top of the basement stairs to be washed, she will sweep up the trash and dump it in the kitchen garbage. Upon entering the kitchen she will notice that it really is gross and she should unload and reload the dishwasher. After loading the dishwasher she will notice that she is out of soap. She decides if she is going to go down to the basement to get soap she should bring the laundry down with her. When she goes into the bathroom to collect the laundry she will remember an old promise that before she runs laundry she will take a cloth wipe and wipe down the bathroom. After finishing wiping down the bathroom, she heads to the basement with an armful of laundry and tosses it in the washer. After grabbing her box of dishwasher soap, she will notice that her kids have made a mess of the basement. Upon asking them to clean it up, they respond "Isn't Mommy going to help?" she manages not to blow her top and picks up some of the mess that she knows the baby did. After returning upstairs she starts the dishwasher only to hear her oldes screaming that she messed up "dragonland" in the basement. She requires him to come upstairs and eat after noticing that his breakfast is still on the table from hours ago. While in the dining room, she notices that there are scraps of paper in there that also need to be cleaned. She dumps the garbage in the kitchen trash. Upon entering the kitchen, her children all decide it should be lunchtime. After lunch the mail lady comes and now to check the mail...

Reason #6 Leadership

After spending half the afternoon annoyed with the lies on both political parties and just plain sick of politics, my kids and I went to 6pm daily mass. As we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Rosary (at Holy Rosary Church), I was reminded by the enormous crucifix that in a time when neither candidate or party is a protector of all human life that there will be a day when the Prince of Peace will reign over all people. Only then will my soul be truly at rest. For now, I will enjoy being a member of church that respects all life from before conception, through only allowing just war, until natural death and of course continue to pray for peace.

Reason #5 Choices of Lifestyle

While most of our world thinks lifestyle choice somehow should be discussing who should be able to marry who and be recognized by the state, we have lost sight of true lifestyle choice. In a world where Celibacy is under fire, we have completely lost site of the ability to retire to a mountain in a solitude that only can come from knowing that you are part of a bigger picture, a bigger plan, a bigger community. On the feast of St. Bruno let us thank God for monks and humans so strong in their faith that their hearts will never be alone.

Reason #4 St. Francis

Happy Feast of St. Francis everyone! There is so much to say as to why St. Francis is such an important facet of the Catholic Church, but I will try to keep it short. With the beatification of St. Francis the Catholic Church reminds us all of the importance of staying true to Christ's teaching that with neither rod or shoes on your feet should you follow Christ for we must leave the material world and completely embrace that God will always fully provide for us and that he is the only fulfillment in life all other "things" will come short.

Proclaim the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words.

God Bless!

Reason #3 The Eucharist & Jon Bon Jovi

Christ's words "this is my body given up for you" is what every man is supposed to be saying to his wife in the marital embrace. Would our world have such a high divorce rate if this were true? In Bon Jovi's "Bed of Roses" he somehow gets it (I was utterly shocked) the refrain reads, "I want to lay you down in a bed of roses (Mary is often said to smell like roses as well as other heavenly saints that have roses attributed to them), for tonight I sleep on a bed of nails (watch what his arms do in the refrain when he says nails, he is imitating the FULL gift of self that Christ gave on the cross) then he even completes the marital act recognizing that the Holy Ghost is the result of the full gift of love between Christ and her church. Unbelievable. I have no idea if this is what he thought he was writing about, but he was raised at least loosely Catholic and has been married to the same women for almost 20 years.

Reason #2 Celibacy

I love being part of church that believes sex is so important that abstaining from sex is thought of as such a complete gift of self. Celibacy reminds us that true ecstasy will only be found when we (the bride) is fully, intimately, physically united with the true bridegroom.

50 Reasons I love being Catholic

So in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep (I need to stop waking up at 10am so I can go to bed at a decent hour) I starting thinking about how much I love being Catholic the more I learn about the Church. I decided that from today until Thanksgiving I am going to do 50 reasons I love being Catholic. So without further delay:

Reason #1 Today's reason has to do with the fact that it is St. Therese's Feast day. She is that holy looking woman on the right. I love belonging to a church that honors women who have guts and femininity beautifully balanced in one person. She was obedient to those she needed to be obedient to, but when push came to shove and she felt God calling her and had locals think she was too young, she took it to the pope and won!

The chicken or the egg???

So for the past 6 years I have been trying to unpeel where our culture came up with its view on conception, birth, breastfeeding, and sacredness of life. On an email list I am on, we were discussing when we would feel comfortable with our babies having babies. Most of our society is now saying that a women should wait until her late 20's early 30's before she has children so that she has time to build up her career, money, her esteem, etc. First the easy one is money. We just need to stop letting it rule our lives. Money is supposed to work for us as we created it, it did not create us. So last night I stayed up WAY to late listening to Barbara Behrmann speak at a previous LLLI conference on my iPod. She was talking about the healing and empowerment of breastfeeding. She told stories of many women but two in particular caught my attention as they tied into my week long thoughts on why do we have children so late in life. She mentioned 2 teenage girls that got pregnant both in pretty crummy situations one was on drugs the other just never valued. Both of these girls decided to keep their babies even though society told them not to and then they both decided to breastfeed. They talked about how much it transformed their entire being. It gave them the confidence to say and do what they believed to be best for their baby. It turned the one mother away from her drug addictions and she began to eat healthy and live healthy b/c she realized that whatever she consumed would be part of her child.
So back to the title question. Six years ago (after the birth of our first son) my husband and I realized that their is so much more to the current life issues then a few mere laws. We tried to back step to where did we as a society go astray (this time). We discovered that first women lost her bodies right to find the fulfillment that God provides through her bodies in her gift of breastfeeding ("Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse in delight at her abundant breasts" Isaiah 66:11-12) or ("Your breast are like twin fawns, the young of a gazelle that browse amoung the lilies" Songs 4:5 the description is evidence of the importance of the breast being full of life ready to spring forth new life)
After breastfeeding became taboo, birth was quickly moved from a life altering experience ("Nevertheless, she will be saved by child-bearing, provided she lives a sensible life and is constant in faith and love and holiness. " 1 Timothy 2:15) to one filled with grief, mourning, and fright.
After we lost the beauty and redemptive power of giving natural birth, we lost the ability to praise God for the fertility that he has blessed us with (Jesus speaking to a crowd of women during his way of the cross states "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed' " Luke 23:29).
After we contraceptive God's natural plan for the sacredness and redemption that lies in the women's womb (read JPII Theology of the Body on the parallels of the womb to the original Garden of Eden it is beautiful.) we lost the ability to love the life that God has created in his image and likeness ("Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. " Rev12:4).
About a year ago I read Kellmeyer state that one of the major blows the importance of children was when our society changed from a farming one to industrial as children suddenly moved from being viewed as an asset and necessary part of the family to being a financial burden that needs to be minimized. Chronologically I am pretty sure this came before women stopped breastfeeding as women sought out to become more like men instead of reminding the world of the beauty of feminity. Between Steve Kellmeyer mentioning that in the late 1800's fathers (as a whole) started moving away from the home to work outside of the family and Peggy O'Mara's article on "Where's Joseph" I discovered that the women's liberation was a natural response to industrialization. Women were suddenly at home doing both the job of the mother and the father as the husband was off working (low and behold she got tired). As women took on more of the father's role, they lost some of the beauty of their own role and men took over some of the female roles (like breastfeeding with their invention of infant formula, childbirth with twilight baby removal, fertility with "the Pill")
So now I am trying to figure out where in this time line women moved back when they will start having children by about 10-15 years from the 1800s until today.

Bookcase

I am very proud of the bookcase I built for the kid's Atrium so I thought I would share it. This is what it looks like when opened up with the sparse materials I have so far on it. It is hinged so you can do it as a corner shelf or a flat wall and then when it isn't used, it all folds onto itself. Now I need to go get a board to make a table top that will rest on the top when it is closed so we have more workspace. The best part is that even with all of the wood the whole thing cost about $75.00 and we bought good wood. The guy at Lowe's cut all the boards so I didn't have to figure out how to manage a circular saw with 3 kids.

Faking it...

So the beautiful ceiling beams that we knew weren't structural or original to the house we just found out aren't even real wood they are Styrofoam. Brandon was cleaning the bookcases b/4 he started to unload his boxes and reached behind one and low and behold just Styrofoam. It is a really really good fake though.

some like it hot...

So these are called the "lazy" days of summer. I was chatting with some friends about living without air conditioning and the views are very interesting. Today the heat index in Evansville hit 102 degrees. The solution, well fill up a kiddie pool and enjoy the day with the kids. After I got out of the pool and came back in the house it struck me that our go go go society has lost the lazy days of summer. The heat makes us slow down so we spend more time doing useless activities like drinking sweat tea, playing in a kiddie pool, and "accidentally" spraying brother's with a hose. I look up and down my block though and notice that I am the only house with windows open and this is true when it is only in the 80s as I can see how the 100s would make people want air. So instead of slowing down and experiencing all the seasons that God gave us we have circumvented them all with perfect climate control at all times. Our children's generation will never remember the days of having to have water balloon fights to keep from melting, why ice cream is SO good (it is good anyway), and why evenings are best spent on the front porch (since the house hasn't cooled off as quickly as the outside does). I can't believe that the schools in this area start school in just 3 weeks, to me we are just in the middle of summer there is still so much of nature to learn about and explore and i for one am not ready to be stuck inside a building yet. I guess that is another reason to be glad we are homeschooling.

And the rain, rain, rain came down down down...

Well for the second time in the 9 years I have owned this house, the sump pump has had to kick in and for the first time in 9 years, there is seepage coming into our back room in the basement. What a mess as we haven't worried about putting things on the floor since in 9 years we haven't ever had water. I guess it isn't as bad as it could have been given the room that it came into. I think it all happened b/c our rain gutter pipe was disconnected so all the roof water was being drained into a very small spot right outside that wall of the house.

Anyway, on to a cute picture. Alexander is taking horseback riding lessons this summer so I bought him helmet. This is Xavier trying his helmet on riding the rocking horse.

Some Kid

So today has been some day and I have some kid. The day started with a scare about our house sale, but I think it should all be okay. Then shortly after all of that was settled Xavier woke up from an early nap vomiting everywhere. Dominic was still in bed at 1pm, but is acting fine now. So want to know the some kid part? Alexander took care of everyone. He helped me get Xavier and I cleaned up, brought me everything I needed so that I could focus on holding Xavier and then even started to empty Xavier's throw up bucket for me. He was so cute about it b/c he has problems not sympathy vomiting, so he would turn away, and hold the bowl behind where he could see to take it to the sink. Quite a trooper for a 6 year old. I don't think I will fully appreciate him until I am 80 and he is taking such good care of me. He really is some kid. The amazing part to me is that I don't even have to ask. He asks me if he can do something to help.

Moving

I am really just posting this here b/c I think the ants are so cute carrying their little box. I wonder if I will be that cute, smiling with baby in sling carrying boxes to the truck.

Little Ants is moving to Evansville, IN.

Musings on Packing and Education

Since my family is moving, I have had to accomplish the task of going through boxes of old "memorabilia" since I hope to never move again, I am looking at these items with the question of "will my kids want to clean this out of the basement when I am dead?" Pretty simple categories. Then I realized that the envelope full of old "certificates of accomplishment" are in the box of things my kids will want to clean out when I am dead. Do my children really care that I was in the National Honor Society? I quickly got rid of all my old report cards as they were somehow causing me stress just looking at them. So this the the weird part that after realizing that the certificates don't matter, I still kept them. They have in no way sort or form helped me become the person I am today. They are an arbitrary reward system developed by schools to make children want to learn after they have fought so hard to form them into obedient mindless beings.

Well, 7 hours have passed since I started my paragraph (the life of a mother) and I am going to go upstairs toss them all in the recycling bin and go to bed. Have a good one. Another few links on the Prussian educational system that we all know and love. Nevada Journal, Harpers, Bridegroom Press.