Resolutions for a new year

I resolve to not be so slothful, not waste valuable time, and to enjoy the things I have to do no matter how odious I have thought them to be in the past.

I resolve to become truly a woman of prayer, to make my entire life that of an unceasing prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God.

I resolve to not be so negative, for I have much to be thankful for.

I resolve to get more exercise, both physical and spiritual.

I resolve to not be afraid.

I resolve to find the joy in everything.

I resolve to become the person God created me to be.

I resolve to keep trying, no matter how many times I fail in all my resolutions.  Sometimes the grace lies in the effort, not the succeeding.

Another anniversary

has come and gone without any fanfare whatsoever.  As of December 21st, we’ve been homeschooling for an entire year.  Lots of progress has been made in many ways, but we’ve still got a long way to go.  I wonder if there is any way to teach the checs to be happy in their own company….they always seem to have to be playing to same thing at the same time, which creates bickering and unrest.  That’s not to say that my reason for homeschooling was to try to eliminate the bickering, far from it.  I just cannot for the life of me understand why they seem to take such pleasure in being so unrepentantly vicious to each other. (And, for that matter, why none of my homeschooling friends seem to have the same issue with their children…..is there something wrong with me? with my kids?)

I have discovered that girlchec CAN do work at grade level, she doesn’t much care to, unless there is an immediately obvious practical application.  For example, adding and subtracting make her eyes glaze over like some fakir’s charmed snake; perimeters and weights & measures mean every answer’s going to be correct the first time around.

Older boychec is dismally incapable of (a) self-starting anything and (b) managing time to complete a task within the time allotted.  Now,  I’ll be the first to admit that at times my motto is “if it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever be accomplished” but for the most part I do a pretty good job of spacing things out over the course of however much time I have.  And leaving things unfinished doesn’t seem to bother him, either.

Younger boychec continues to be impossible to challenge.  He refuses work that is beneath his ability (which is rather advanced); but he also refuses to do work that is a bit challenging.  I am continually stressing about finding the right balance between easy and difficult.

We do have a routine, and as long as I play drill sergeant, things go rather well.  It’s only when they are left to their own devices that things get hairy.  One of my constant prayers is that they will develop the ability to amuse themselves without (a) pestering a sibling to the point of injury or tears; (b) requiring repeated supervisory visits from The Mom; and/or (c) finding it necessary to do forbidden things.

I just love them the best way I know how, pray for them and with them at every opportunity, and commend them to God each night before I close my eyes in sleep.  He knows best, after all.

Merry Christmas!

I’m off the hook….

until I start the next project, that is!  I just finished this prayer shawl, using a pattern I got from Prayer Shawl Ministries.  I’m going to give it to someone at my parish whose husband has cancer.  There are many suggestions for prayers to say as you make one of these, but I prayed a Jesus Prayer with every stitch.  I am glad to have finished it before Christmas.

Tell me what you think:

(I’m still amazed that my phone takes such great pictures.  Hooray for memory cards and thumb-drive adapters!)

Christmas Carol Quiz, Part 5

This will finish up the quiz.

32.  IHABCWY

33.  WUNWTAGC

34.  JHTSBR (I learned this as JHTSBJ)

35.  CTTMPRPPP

36.  AWHHOH

37.  HAHJC

38.  AIAMNCFAB (I learned this one as AWIAMNCFHB)

39.  STNWTTLLDYHWIH

40.  OTWOIFBTFISD

41.  DDMOH

42.  WCITWLTROMLIS

An additional hint for #12 – CSBSDIHS:  this is one of those in which the first line is not the title of the song!

I’ll leave you (temporarily) with a photo:

He looks pretty comfortable here, too, yes?

Confused by all the candidates?

I ran across an interesting and informative little quiz this morning.  If you take the quiz you’ll answer a series of multiple-choice questions on the hot-button issues in the upcoming Presidential election.  As you answer each question a bar graph forms, with the different candidate’s positions appearing in direct comparison to your own responses.  I encourage you to go take the quiz; if nothing else you’ll discover where you stand….and it’s also useful to see where you might need to be more informed about something that is a big concern to other voters, but that you might not have given much thought to.

Well…

When I came downstairs to fix lunch a while ago, I was treated to the sight of Eli asleep on girlchec’s bed. I was going to take a photo, but then realized that he was snoozing on an unmade bed – and that’s not very photogenic. So I’ll wait. Perhaps he will arrange himself attractively on a more suitable surface later.

Then older boychec wished me a happy birthday as we sat down to the table – to which I responded “yesterday was my birthday, so you’re late.” He said “oh, but you can continue the celebration for several days” so I guess I’m one step closer to sanctity – I have a postfestive of my birthday!

Speaking of birthdays, I got some very nice gifts. The Birthday Elf left a beautiful pair of leather gloves at my door – to replace the old ones that Eli tasted into oblivion – and I got Dove chocolates, gourmet cheese and crackers, and licorice. My mom brought dinner – KFC and tiramisu, complete with numeral candles (the tiramisu, not the KFC).

Younger boychec (the future biker priest, ha ha) has been going around singing all week, alternating between “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen” and the antiphon from the last night of Pilgrimage 2007…..”O Jesus, Lover of Mankind, have mercy on us.” It is much more beautiful when sung.

I have yet to finish wrapping gifts….we went very non-commercial this year and there isn’t much to wrap, but I have a couple of things for my mom that have to be packaged up, plus the things for the checs’ stockings. There is no tree, there being temporarily no place for one due to the remodeling of my kitchen.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I’ve been surfing around a bunch of blogs, trying to figure out what makes a traffic-worthy blog and cogitating on how to keep this one interesting and fun (to me) while making it link-worthy (to you). Seems to me that blogs of mostly original material have less traffic than blogs of links to other sites and commentary on same. So maybe I need more links. Or I need to be more original. Or perhaps I just need to quit worrying about the traffic and just post?

Christmas Carol Quiz, Part 4

ByzCat is monopolizing the roster of winners….so far I owe her three links to blogs or websites of her choice (since she is blogless, being a vicarious blogger through me).

#12 is proving to be a toughie – CSCSDIHS

And to round out today’s selections, here are nine more:

23.  SBRAYL

24.  IBHFCYCCOM

25.  WWYAMCWWYAMC

26.  IHTBOCD

27.  FTSWAJHS

28.  JOSNLYETW

29.  GKWLOOTFOS

30.  UOTHRPOJGOSC

31.  JBJBJR

The list of previous clues are here, and here, and here.  Answers in the comments.  Have fun!

This is a test…

This is younger boychec sitting on a $60K Harley.  I took this picture with my phone.  Unfortunately there was no one willing to take my picture sitting in the sweet little ‘67 Stingray that was also in the showroom where this was taken!

A Protestant take on Vatican II, continued

I ought to add that I picked up the book from which I am quoting at my local Goodwill store. Occasionally I find very interesting things there.

To pick up where I left off yesterday, professor Cullmann remarks:

One text especially, and one which is not sufficiently appreciated by those who are not Catholics, deserves special attention – the schema on priestly training. I believe it is one of the best and most important. Here the study of scripture has moved entirely into the foreground. This text is concerned more than any other with bringing the Council’s influence to bear on the future. If the future training of priests follows these principles, the orientation of Catholic thought in terms of scripture and salvation history is assured. The real work of aggiornamento will then be carried on through a deepened reflection on the substance of Christian belief. Here we can say without reservation that our expectations have been surpassed.

[one very long, boring paragraph omitted]

You will hardly be surprised that the schema on ecumenism, in its quality as an ecumenical statement, far surpasses our boldest expectations. At the beginning of the Council we hardly hoped that, in an official statement of the Council, non-Catholic Churches as such would be recognized to such a degree; and that their individual characteristics would be evaluated positively as charisms. And entirely new conception of ecumenism has been presented here; and along with it an entirely new Catholic conception of the Church: the Roman Church is no longer viewed as the one Church which is to absorb all others. (emphasis mine) …In this connection I would like now to point out a passage in section 11 of the schema on ecumenism. this passage, considered in all its consequences, offers the most far-reaching hope for the future; it seems to me to be the Council statement which offers the most promise for the furthering of renewal and facilitating of dialogue. Yet, strangely enough, very little as been said about it. Here we read that ‘in Catholic teaching there exists an order or hierarchy of truths, since they vary in their truths of the Catholic relationship to the foundation of Christian faith.’ This hierarchy makes possible a rearrangement of the very substance of Catholic teaching….

Argh. I can’t quote any more; it’s nauseating. It was a valid Council, to be sure, some pretty invalid things came of it (which, Deo gratias, are now beginning to be corrected by our good and holy Papa Ben).

Interestingly, several years ago I discovered that a relative of mine was in attendance at the Council….my great-uncle George, of happy memory, who was at the time a bishop in the Moravian Church. My mother remembers him spending a lot of time “away” during the times the Council was in session, but she tells me that he was pretty close-mouthed about where he was and what he was doing. I was born in 1963, so I can’t be expected to remember anything at all about that time in history, can I?