Planners: the good, the true and the beautiful!

I love Michele's planners at Family-Centered Press ... they are the best I've found, published by a Catholic homeschool family, and they are beautiful!  I've bought planners for years -- mostly to keep a diary of what we're doing for "school" and appointments, birthdays, etc.  I've got a Google-calendar that I use extensively but being able to take notes the old-fashioned way as we do it ... really works for me.

If you're in the market for a school-year planner, you've got to check these out. They now include both the Ordinary (New) and Extraordinary (Traditional) Forms of the Liturgy with the liturgical colors proper to the day. I love it!

The cover pictured here is just one of the nine different covers from which you can choose -- I like this one because ... well, I love lambs! Michele also offers menu-planning inserts and/or lesson-planning pages.  There are two sizes available -- the 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 or the 8-1/2 x 11 -- with either a plastic coil binding or hole-punched for putting in a binder.  I've used the smaller planners in the past and purchased the small binder -- I now have a complete record (including medical/dental appointments, etc) for each year.

You need to pre-order so get a going over to Family-Centered Press's website to check it out.

Don't forget to tell all your friends too!

Review: finding the fountain of youth ...

... well, not really, but have I got a book for those of us who are feeling our age ... or worried about aging ... or worried about our loved ones aging. 

Run, don't walk, and get a copy of Aging with Grace by Dr. Snowdon, an epidemiologist.  This is a remarkable book that tells lovingly about the lives of School Sisters of Notre Dame and the aging process.  Because, after all is said and done ... we are all aging.  We can do it gracefully, as the Sisters do, or we can do it "fight and screaming" (as I'd like to do).  But, the bottom line is that we are all aging. 

I find out about this book through knitting.  Seriously. 

A few weeks ago, I spoke at a women's Lenten retreat and after I did my talk, I sat in the back and knitted away while the retreat ebbed and flowed around me.  A dear friend, and Dominican sister but NOT a knitter, gave me a rough time about knitting.  Sister loves to tease and I took it all in the spirit for which it was meant ... basically I ignored the poor non-knitter.  But she made a statement that struck me as odd ... "I'll learn to knit when I'm 60."  I just half-jokingly told her to email me and I would be right there with needles and yarn.  And then she explained Aging with Grace showed her the need to learn new things.

Intrigued, I requested the book and read it cover to cover in just a few days. 

I can remember hearing occasionally about the "nun study" on aging and how some scientist had found that proverbial fountain of youth.  Well, not exactly, but what Dr. Snowdon did find when we started studying these dear women is that aging with grace means staying cheerful, constantly learning/trying new things, and loving the journey all the way to the end. 

Dr. Snowdon has been tracking various School Sisters of Notre Dame for over 20 years and has found that those who exhibit minor (if at all) symptoms of Alzheimer's are those who at 67 went to Africa to evangelize, who at 70 were still teaching in schools, who at 87 were still knitting a pair of mittens each day for the homeless.  These ladies know how to grow old gracefully and with all their mental (if not their physical) faculties in tact.  As a group, those who show few signs of the sad part of aging -- dementia, physical ailments, depression, self-centeredness -- but rather show the joy of loving the Lord and living fully the life God has given them.

One thing I really liked about the "nun study book" is that the researcher, a cradle Catholic who attended Catholic schools most of his life, really loves his "test participants".  He describes each sister with a love and care of a son or nephew.  He rejoices when he visits a centuarian on her birthday and is saddened when one of his ladies dies before he can visit her one last time.  He plays cards with them, jokes with them, banters with them -- regardless of their age or infirmities.  And all his subjects are not aging with grace -- but he treats each with the God-given dignity of the Human Person, regardless of their incapacities.

This book is filled with much more than the answer to aging -- it is filled with love of the human person and the gifts each brings to the world.

Unit Study: For the Birds!

Well, spring has definitely sprung around here with gorgeous blue skies and 72-degree days!  For our first day back after Easter break, we are starting a new cross-curriculum unit on Birds.  Today we started with learning about the consummate bird naturalist ...

John James Audubon (1785-1851)

We started our study by reading two picture-book biographies that are excellent introductions to this amazing man: 

• Jacqueline Davies' The Boy Who Drew Birds is a great overview of Audubon's first interests in birds just after arriving in America from France and how he satisfied his curiousity through research and field work
• Jennifer Armstrong's Audubon: Painter of Birds in the Wild Frontier starts later in Audubon's life when he is already starting his quest to paint all the birds of North America.  The illustrations in this one are amazing (done by Jos. A. Smith, a professor of fine arts at Pratt Institute in NY) as are the end notes that the author and illustrated wrote.

We also pulled out our copy of the Audubon's Birds of America so the kids could see the product of Audubon's talents.  I've got a collection of Audubon's own journals, John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings, coming from Amazon later this week so that we can read about his work in his own words. 

As we develop this unit and see where the trails take us ... we'll post the info here.  I want to end up with a big cross-curriculum unit that will end our formal school-year with a fun and active (and outdoorsy!) project. 

Feast Day: Divine Mercy Sunday!

(image from Printery House ... HT: Marisa!)

Eternal Father, I offer you the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world!

Review: Lonestar Homecoming by Colleen Coble

Reading is a lot like eating.  As I get older, I try and eat (and read) mostly the good stuff ... the kind that will nourish both my body and soul; the superfoods of life.  But occasionally, I like to eat (and read!) the junk food -- the light, fluffy stuff that is pleasant for the moment but doesn't really last or having any deeper meaning.

Lonestar Homecoming by Colleen Coble was my "junk food" reading after my heavy Lenten-based reflective reading.  It's a light, fast-paced read ... no really "icky" scenes but nothing really deep.  The story is implausible but fun ... a Snickers bar for an afternoon when I just need something that's not going to tax me overmuch.

I liked this story but a few niggling things crept in: this book may have been better as a frontier-times story rather than a present day Mexican-American ganglord  story -- too much drama that was more harrowing then this light book warranted (particularly the violence threatened to the children ... a bit over the top for me).  Also, the romance was a bit too coincidental but all works out in the end and that's what makes junk food reading fun reading; the more implausible the more fun for me.  One thing that really struck me was the Christian element -- it seemed put on for publishing to this particular market; the mention of God and church was vague and not part of the characters' lives but rather tacked on in occasional scenes, interrupting the flow of the story.  If Christianity is going to be part of the book, the characters should be Christian throughout; I like my religious innuendo a little more subtle.

Overall, this is a good beach or rainy day read.  A wholesome love story that is chaste and full of forgiveness.  Suspend your disbelief, check your logic at the door and enjoy a junk-food read:  not great literature, but then sometimes we need a bit of marshamallow fluff after the spinach salad!

---

This book was received free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Book Sneeze program. I was not required to write a favorable review nor was I given any payment other than a free copy of the book. All the comments above are my honest reaction to this book.

Easter-tide 2010 ...

and what a way to celebrate Easter-tide!  A dear neighbor gave me a bottle of ChocoVine ... a combination of Godiva chocolate and Cabernet wine. 

Sounds disgusting ... but oh, it tastes so good. 

It's like Kahlua but a bit lighter ... chilled over ice it is a lovely after-dinner drink (while Rick and the kids do their Peep Wars) ... with a shot of club soda it's a very light, delightful drink.

Here's a link to the distributors of this 14% alcohol drink that is manufactured in Holland, but available all over the U.S.

ENJOY and have a blessed and lovely Easter-tide!

Easter 2010 ...

The tomb is empty .... it is really empty! 

Why?

Because He is risen ... He is truly risen!

We went to Mass at dawn (0600) because Legomaniac didn't want to serve the Easter Vigil and thought 0600 didn't sound that early (until we had to get him up at 0500 to get ready!).  Father gave an excellent sermon on the tomb and a boy named Jeremy Fisher ... one of those sermons that will stay in my mind for a long time.  For Bam-bam, probably not:  he slept HARD through the majority of the Mass.  But at least he's honest ... when we greeted Father after Mass, first thing BamBam says to him is, "so what was the sermon about ... I slept through it."  At least he didn't snore!

So we had ham and sweet potatos and baked beans -- all cooked amazingly well by my dh ...

But no Easter would be complete without ...

the traditional PEEP WARS ... brought to us this year by a goodie box from Kotch ...

for those of you uninitiated few, here is a Youtube of how to have your very own Peep Wars:

Prayers for a wonderful Easter-tide for you and yours from me and mine ....