Oh Vanity!

"And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:
they labour not, neither do they spin." Matthew 6:28

In the stillness of this morning, I took a pause to visit the garden. I've been reading Ecclesiastes to Thing #3 before bed this week, too, since the other book is a bit...adult...for Things #1 & #2 to be listening in on at bedtime.

Observing the juxtaposition of explosive growth and decaying vines within the cold, dark silence of a dawning summer day was an eerie feeling.

All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven.A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build.A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away.A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace.-Eccesiastes 3:1-8

Scything in the Morning

Birthday week plus exceptionally wet weather has made it difficult to mow the lawn. I use a reel mower for the "lawn" area, and it usually takes me a good two hour session to get it all. That is, when the grass is short enough.
Missing a mowing with the reel mower is tricky business, because it soon gets too long to handle in some areas. Certain grasses grow faster than others, leaving a few areas still mowable but many, not so much.
So, I've been getting up early this week to make hay.

A windrow from this morning. This was under the trampoline
for a few weeks, and was pretty long. I deftly avoided the
softball bat so as not to dent the blade.

For those not in the know, using a scythe on short grass is exponentially easier when the grass is damp. The extra weight keeps the grass in place so the blade can cut from the underside. Dry, short grass simply does not have the inertia necessary, and flops over and pops back up like a spring-based doorstop.

I have very much enjoyed the peace and stillness of the world at 5:45 AM. It's still a little dark, and out in the country, very silent. I've been using the time for prayer and meditation, interrupted only by my needy sheep bleating for handouts.

All in all, scything this much takes longer than mowing. I think the area that I can mow with the reel mower, at a light jog, takes about 2 hours. The last time I scythed this whole section took me 6. That's OK. The grass gets cut very short, and does take longer to regrow from a scythe cut than from a reel cut.

I've contemplated making this a permanent thing, but I'll need a longer grass blade to increase the efficiency. I'm using a ditch blade right now, which is shorter, thicker, and built for heavier brush. The grass blades are longer, thinner, and sharper, making soft grasses easier to cut.

In the meantime, I'll get some good hay made, get a light workout for the whole body, and contemplate the meaning of life, all before starting work. Not a bad deal.

Homeschool Thoughts After A Week

With one week under our belts and our new curriculum in place and beginning to churn forward, we're noticing some things about how it's been going.

The homeschool book shelf.

For one, the stress of memorization for the test is gone. The relief was visible on Thing #1's face when we told her we weren't going to be testing so much, but instead replying on projects and demonstrated knowledge.

Second, the interest in learning seems to already be higher than it has ever been. By investing in some high-quality books, we're getting away from the banality of "school books" and into some pretty exciting topics that are challenging as much as they are informative.

Third, the mundane "sameness" of a pre-planned, every-book-is-the-same-format curriculum is gone, replaced with a new way to learn for each subject. Non-fiction texts, image-rich encyclopedias, web sites, videos (soon), and notebooking are taking the place of read-and-fill-in-the-blank workbooks. The kids are much more engaged, and it provides a good mental reboot on each subject to feel and see a change in medium.

Fourth, we love Saxon Math. It's just awesome. Wife and I are learning to use it still. But the kids seem to be gaining confidence each day, they're already learning new stuff, and it's explained easily, resulting in much more efficient uses of time for all of us.

Lastly, the unit studies are gonna be great. We started at the beginning - literally. The Creation story and the Big Bang dominated science, religion, history, spelling, and vocab last week. The kids were even debating the theology of the Big Bang at dinner this weekend, even on Thing #1's birthday. That level of retention and interest is EXACTLY what we were going for.

Birthday Week

Last week we celebrated Thing #1's and Thing #2's birthdays.

Things #1, #2, and #3 enjoying one of many cakes.

With birthdays 6 days apart, it really is more of a family week-long extravaganza than anything.
This year, we took a field trip to Holiday World on day #2 of school.

Our super awesome trip to the amusement park made for a tired family.

Wife and I took turns riding with the older 2, and found some cool things (like the wave pool) for Thing #3 to play in. It was great.
More birthday week stuff after the jump....

In, Not Of

I just came across some of Pope Francis' words:

"I left my jeans and tennis shoes in
my other bag."

"We need saints without cassocks, without veils - we need saints with jeans and tennis shoes. We need saints that go to the movies that listen to music, that hang out with their friends. We need saints that place God in first place ahead of succeeding in any career. We need saints that look for time to pray every day and who know how to be in love with purity, chastity and all good things. We need saints - saints for the 21st century with a spirituality appropriate to our new time. We need saints that have a commitment to helping the poor and to make the needed social change. We need saints to live in the world, to sanctify the world and to not be afraid of living in the world by their presence in it. We need saints that drink Coca-Cola, that eat hot dogs, that surf the internet and that listen to their iPods. We need saints that love the Eucharist, that are not afraid or embarrassed to eat a pizza or drink a beer with their friends. We need saints who love the movies, dance, sports, theater. We need saints that are open sociable normal happy companions. We need saints who are in this world and who know how to enjoy the best in this world without being callous or mundane. We need saints."

Wow.

Too often, we have this holy vs. secular dichotomy in Catholic circles. The Bible and the rosary are for prayer, and the basketball is for play.
That's the wrong way to think about the world.

This guy has had plenty of hot dogs
and beer.

We're studying creation in homeschool right now, and one key that I don't think I ponder enough is that God made the world, and it was very good. God made iron ore to be fashioned to steel, silicon to be shaped into microchips, corn to be processed into sweeteners, and so forth. Things like iPods, hot dogs, and the other cultural elements the Pope hints at are all made, by human hands, from God's creation.
Think about that.
Created by God. The work of human hands. Now where else have I heard that...?
I think the key thing here is that saints all become saints in the circumstances, time, and place in which they live. Saints are royalty, married, gun owners, kids in school, and have the common thread of being heroic in the practice of virtue within the time and place God put them.
Saints take every day, and sanctify it.
Saints take what God has given them, make it holy, and give it back.
Saints use their gifts, their resources, their possessions, but make the clear choice to not only not be possessed by their possession, but the choice to use those possessions in the service of God.

So the Pope is absolutely right - today's saints will eat hot dogs, drink Coke, have iPods, play football, drink beer, and be normal people.

The difference between today's saints and everyone else?
Today's saints will be giving God the credit.

Homeschool Starts Today!!

Unit Studies: The Final Frontier

Today marks Day #1 of our brand-new curriculum experiment roll-out. I'm especially excited about our unit studies with History and Science.
This first 4 weeks, we'll be exploring creation, the Big Bang, astronomy, the Flood, galaxies, and other "early universe" topics.
It works out well, because the kiddos have expressed a big interest in astronomy in the last few months as it is. So their natural curiosity and willingness to dive into a topic is going to be a tremendous help in providing fuel for getting this whole thing rolling.
It'll be very cool integrated the sciences with the story of creation from Genesis. The coolest part is how the science is totally in line with the Scriptures on this point ("Let there be light" = giant explosion. WIN!). It starts things off right for what we are accomplishing.
So excited!

No Time for Prayer? Wake Up a Bit Earlier!

"I want to,
but I can't...."

Lately I've been finding myself so busy that it seems I don't have enough time to pray (let alone blog like I want to). In fact, daily prayer is typically one of the first things to get jettisoned when the day is booked from 7 AM through 10 PM, like it has been here recently.
Between the day job, lawn care, housework, freelance projects, child & animal care, quality time with Wife, visitors, etc., etc., I am spent.
Worse still, I just cannot carve out time during the day to fit in prayer.

The solution?

Get my lazy tucchus outta bed a bit earlier.

I've been "snoozing" later and later to the point of rolling out of bed 5 minutes before work starts, throwing together a pot of coffee, and waking up whilst I log in to the remote system. This does not provide for a smooth start to the day, as y'all might imagine.
So this week, I have started getting up early and getting my prayer done FIRST.

It has made a huge difference already.