My Two Blessings

FUN MONDAY - Put your best foot forward sponsored by Pensieve " Shoes tell a lot about a person and we wanna delve deeply into your soul sole. Photograph your favorite pair--or pairs--of shoes and tell us a little about why they're near and dear to your toes heart" I hate wearing shoes and welcome any opportunity not to wear them. I was always the gal at work whose shoes came off the minute I hit my desk. If I could get away with wandering barefoot through the office, I would. Shoes come off the minute I hit the door. We decluttered recently and donated a bunch of stuff to Goodwill. Amongst the stuff were several pairs of shoes. I currently own one pair of sandals, one pair of sneakers and my clogs, that's it. We were going out for a nice dinner the other night and I had nothing to wear but my sandals. I was scratching my head wondering where all my shoes went! Silly me....Time to go shoe shopping. The shoes that are near and dear to all our sol...

I saw this article mentioned on Welcome to Granny's House and it just made me Livid. I read the following article on Fox News By Catherine Donaldson-Evans “A fairy tale about two princes falling in love sparked a backlash — and a lawsuit — against a teacher and a school last year when it was read to a second-grade class in Massachusetts. Did you know this book is the #1 challenged book on the banned books list. This is one that I agree should be banned from school curriculum. If someone wants to read it to their kids, let them do it at home. “But the three frontrunners in the Democratic presidential race suggested Wednesday night at their debate in New Hampshire that they’d support reading the controversial book to children as part of a school curriculum.” "Edwards gave the first and most definitive answer — a resounding and instant “yes, absolutely” — although he added that it “might be a little tough” for second-graders. The 2004 vice presidential candidate and for...

Banned Books Week Officially runs from September 29 th through October 6 th , 2007 Banned Books week celebrates our freedom to read and reminds us not to take our freedoms for granted. According to the ALA: “ BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met. Many books have been challenged or banned over the years based on their content in order to protect children from what others consider objectionable material. Who determines what is objectionable? Many different people and groups have attempted and continue to try to get anything that does not agree with their own beliefs banned. Anyone can object to a book and file a challenge to it ther...

Letter Perfect by Cathy Marie Hake I discovered the writings of Cathy Marie Hake, a Christian fiction author, a couple months ago. I had seen the book “Fancy Pants” in the Christianbooks.com catalog and decided it looked interesting. After reading the book, I was hooked on Cathy Marie Hake. Once I find an author whose writing I enjoy, will go through all their books. So, decided to read Letter Perfect. The book is set in the late 1800’s and is about Ruth Caldwell, a young woman who just happens to be intelligent, yet she is a klutz. She has been kicked out of several finishing schools for ladies because she just doesn’t fit in and sets a bad example for the rest of the girls. When her mother dies, she is forced to journey out west to a father she has never meet. Her arrival brings about more mayhem and sparks soon fly between her and the son of her father’s business partner Excerpt Page One “ Exactly how much damage can one tiny fish bone do ? Ruth Cal...

Book Review - A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle I know it is a book considered for 9 to 12 years old, but lately I have become fascinated with children’s authors. In some way, shape or form, the books are just as entertaining as adult reads. I initially read A Wrinkle in Time for my English Literature for Children and Young Adults class last year. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the book, but then again it is written for children who don’t need all the technical detail of a Dale Brown or Tom Clancy Book. Once again, Madeleine L’engle blends a child’s world with the battle between good and evil in A Wind in the Door . At the beginning of the story, 6 year old Charles announces to Meg “There are dragons in the twin’s vegetable garden.” The dragon is a Cherubim (good angel) named Proginoskes who has come to help Charles who is suffering from some mysterious illness. His farandolae are being coerced by the evil Echthroi (fallen angels) to run away a...

We accomplished everything on our plan this week. Day to Day Devotions . We completed the Fruits of the Spirit study and James knows Galatians 5:22,23 by heart now. Now I have to decide what we are going to continue with. Lord, Teach me to Pray : Discovering the Kings Course of Action was all about dissecting Isaiah 36 and learning about worship, allegiance and submitting to God. Math: Working on subtraction which seems to be getting easier. Father told me that yesterday while they were working on the subtraction worksheet that James was coming up with addition equations that equaled the subtraction equation. For example: When Father asked what 14 -1 equals, James would say 12 + 1 which is 13. Father told me he thought James was just being difficult, until I explained that it is a good thing. It means he is getting it and putting 2 + 2 together (no pun intended). Language Arts : English and spelling completed very easily. Worked on putti...

She is eloquent as always. I just had to copy her post regarding the excommunicated nuns. "So everyone and their dog (who is not going to heaven) Rollo, has been emailing me the story of the excommunicated nuns. It's such a sad embarrassing tale of woe, I hardly know where to begin. I'll begin with, no one gets excommunicated anymore. You would think people would be excommunicated left and right, considering the amazing number of cafeteria Catholics. You don't get to pick and choose what to believe and what not to believe. If you have, you are not in communion with the Church and are ex -communioned by definition. But you are not excommunicated. Excommunication means you are barred from the sacraments, and although there is a lot of talk about excommunicating people, I really can't remember it happening. There is a list as long as my arm of people that have been threatened with excommunication: stem cell researchers (that takes the list almost to my shoulder...

We are all so excited since in a week we will be leaving for New York . Since Father is the vice chairman of the Sacramento AES group, we decided he should go and he had to take us with him. I couldn’t have him going to New York without us…so this will be a first for Father, James and I. We are looking forward to it, but in the meantime I have to get busy writing because Project 1 for my science and religion class is due October 7 th . Project 1 involves selecting one of three landmark cases of science: The Copernican and Galileian Controversies, The Mechanistic Universe of Newton and Deism or The Darwinian Controversy AND providing an analysis in which you show through persuasive arguments that the case supports a confrontational model or non confrontational model of science and religion. I think I will go with Newton just to be different, since we all know Darwin was confrontational and most of the students will go with that because it is an easy choice. Plus...

It is amazing what you can accomplish when you set your mind to it. Friday I reviewed James 2 nd grade curriculum and made a few changes. I had realized what the problem was after going to see Susan Bauer at the CCHE Seminar. I had gone crazy with the curriculum choices and added quite a few extras, which seemed to be bogging us, or rather me down. Besides the Well Trained Mind choices, I had been looking at Mater Amabilis (catholic charlotte mason) , Ambleside Online , and others. I found so many neat books that fit into our studies and overdid it. Every single book’s table of contents was entered into excel with how many chapters needed to completed for each book. AND, this is a biggie, instead of calendaring everything out like I did with 1st grade and knew what need to be completed and how long it would take us to finish, decided to just go with the flow and just do the next thing in the list. Without regard to how long it would take to get it don...

Katrina at Callapidder Days is hosting a fall 2007 reading challenge which will take place of course during Fall which runs from September 23 rd through December 21 st . The challenge is to make a list of what books you would like to read during Fall and make a commitment to read them. There are so many books on my bookshelf that I have started, then put down and not gotten back to, so will make a concerted effort to finish them. For years all I read was fiction, science fiction mainly. As I have gotten older, my tastes have changed or maybe I’ve just become more open minded, so have expanded my repertoire to include non fiction and all genres of fiction. These are the books I have chosen so far. Similar to the ebb and flow of the tides, the list will morph, so check the side bar for current reads. I will be adding as time goes on. Nonfiction: Since I am currently taking a Science and Religion course through Excelsior college, the first book I am going to read is “ Jesus of Na...

I signed up recently to be a Soldiers Angel which is a nationwide group started to provide comfort and help to our troops. You can adopt a soldier, send cards and letters, provide support to the families, visit a wounded soldier, or even send help with toys and games which the soldiers distribute to the kids in Iraq and Afghanistan . They are a great organization and the troops need all the moral support they can get. I received this email from Louise, who is the team leader here in Sacramento . “ US Marine Colonel Simcock, the commander of USMC Regimental Combat Team (RCT) 6 in Iraq , is asking for 6,000 positive emails to his Marines. That's one email for each Marine in his RCT command. COL Simcock is concerned about the effect of the negative barrage that those Marines are getting through the electronic media. So far, they've only mustered 2,000 emails. That's a crying shame compared to the amount of crap I get daily in email. This is a legitimat...

We are all finally feeling better after three weeks of illness. I finally have my energy back, which is the most important thing. Because you know….the functioning of our household really does revolve around Mom. My two guys rely on me completely and when mom is down, the house falls down. Now it is time to wean ourselves away from the unlimited tv, dvr, netflix movies, video games, and the internet and get some perspective back into our lives. We have been unschooling which basically means James has been picking and choosing what he wants to learn about and most of that has been through, you guessed it, electronics. But, you know, he doesn’t lean toward the twaddle, basically because we don’t have it in the house. What I mean by twaddle is the mindless stuff like sponge bob, rugrats, etc. I don’t allow him to watch live tv because there are too many commercials, even on the kid’s channels. Everything we watch is recorded on the dvr, dvds or video’s. He is...

Ode to Autumn by John Keats Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease; For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, ...

This week in Science and Religion - Chapter 3 we are reading about Religion and the Philosophy of Science. Expanding my brain and reading all about rationalism, empiricism, realism and idealism, and logical positivism. The questions open for discussion this week are 1) Do you think that a religious community can experience a revolutionary change in thinking that can be described as a paradigm shift? Give one Example. 2) Do you think that humans can ever acquire genuine knowledge (not just mere opinion or a strong feeling) of the presence of spiritual being? If so, what are the standards for such knowledge? 3) Do you think that sensory experiences can, at least in some cases, offer absolutely accurate, and infallible, knowledge of the world? Explain. Interesting questions...but all this thinking fries your brain after a while.

Arrrg! Shiver me timbers and grab some grog and dance smartly, me buccos! We are halfway through the week and James and I are recovering from our colds. Our energy still hasn’t returned completely and we still have the random wet cough which makes everyone around you just want to cross their fingers at you and run away! Father is mid way through his cold and just hit the low point Sunday and Monday. James missed his swimming lessons last week and we decided to cancel this week as well. He had decided he is done with swimming lessons for now, so we didn’t sign him up for more. The swim club was nice enough to keep the lessons on the books, so when he is ready to continue later, he has 6 lessons already paid for. Father gave up on going to the San Francisco AES Annual meeting yesterday, because he wasn’t feeling up to driving there. God was telling us something yesterday because Father was sick, the air conditioning at work was having issues and my car went kap...

Okay, I have a half hour to kill before dinner...what do I do Draw a pig. Yep, that's right. At Draw a Pig you draw a pig, using your mouse and then you will get a personality profile from the drawing of the pig. It isn't easy drawing a pig with your mouse. I had to start over a few times. James saw my pig picture and said "that isn't good." Here it tis: Pretty pathetic, huh! According to the swine I am a realist, believe in tradition, friendly, and remember dates (birthdays, etc.), emotional and naive, and care little for details, a risk-taker, secure, stubborn, and stick to ideals, and an OK listener. I won't tell you what my drawing indicated about my sex life. Ahem, we will just leave that up to the imagination, thank you.

Since I don't have a lot to say today, check out these blogs Ask Sister Mary Martha who is quite upset about the archdiocese of Santa Barbara kicking three nuns out of their home of 55 years so it can be sold to help pay for the $660 million priest abuse settlement. Residents of Santa Barbara are stepping up to try and help the sisters buy the house and you can find more information on her website if you want to help. If you are trying to figure out who to vote for or who is worth of your vote, One Vote Under God provides quite a bit of information. Pete's Pond is fascinating as always Granny's house whom I discovered a few days ago. Don't forget to watch Kid Nation on Wednesday. Valerie's (Valerie in IL on the Well Trained Mind Boards) son, Nathan was picked to be on the show and had a wonderful experience. Forget the hype by the press and watch with an open mind. I watched the promo on the website and I was hooked.

The Classical Christian Home Educators had yesterday and today the 5 th annual CCHE seminar with Susan as the only speaker, in Roseville . I was able to go yesterday, but unfortunately couldn’t make it today. Before we all got colds, had planned on dropping James off at the shop to be with Father while I went. However, father wasn’t feeling well so he came home early so I could go. I got to meet Kate , too but unfortunately missed seeing Robin or Carol from the Well Trained Mind Boards. There were two sessions yesterday in which Susan spoke about The Joy of Classical Education: an introduction to classical education at home and the 2 nd session “Home schooling the Second Time” which was basically about what did right and wrong and if had to do it all over again. I actually learned quite a bit and found I may have been getting off course in trying to teach James from a logic stage standpoint in some things, rather than the grammar stage. Jumping ahea...

Did I happen to mention that not only did James have strep, but he also has a cold, which he has now passed on to Father and I. I spent a restless night trying to sleep while being bugged by a very affectionate Luna who wanted to sleep in the crook of my neck. Every time I moved her, she would move right back up. Once I got her to settle by my side, she decided to clean herself and clean and clean. Cats…..why do they feel the need to plaster themselves to your side, then proceed to clean? So, since we have all been feeling under the weather, much time has been spent in laziness, lolly gagging and getting lost in internet land, perusing the blogs and news. Interesting things I have come across. (this is long so go to the bathroom, grab your coffee, tea or Pepsi and relax. Do you have on your reading glasses? Mother Teresa. There is much being said about the publication of her personal letters. I think we have all experienced at some point or another “dark nig...

Amnesty International, founded in 1961 and supported by many Catholic organizations and individuals has decided to change its policy on abortion and support it. According to AI “With the prevention of violence against women as its major campaigning focus, Amnesty International’s leaders committed themselves anew to work for universal respect for sexual and reproductive rights.” Their decision has alienated the catholic church, leading to the removal of support for AI and leading one school to replace AI with newly formed Benenson Society named after the catholic lawyer who founded Amnesty. English Catholic Bishop Michael Evans ended his 30 year membership with Amnesty International after their announcement. The Pope's response: " It was in Europe that the notion of human rights was first formulated. The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abor...

Playing with the new camera!!!! Luna - She loves to pose !! and sleep and Stare Father's Eyeball One of my many low allergy flower bushes - can't remember the name (sick kid - but humored me) We played around with the new camera this weekend, using all the lenses and different settings. Father gave me (or rather us) for our anniversary a Nikon D80 10.2 Megapixal Digital SLR Camera , along with Nikkor lenses 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoon, 2x teleconverter , 52mm high quality close up kit with +1,+2, +4 lens, and 52mm and 67 mm filter kits. So, in the spirit of using my, err our, new camera setup, I decided to do Project 365 in which you take a photo a day of your life, a photo journal, and post it. The three major reasons as cited by Project 365 are: Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or e...