Sierra Highlights -- Easter Edition

Outside my Window…grey again! Oh, well, the clouds broke for a few hours on Easter, anyway.

I am thinking… about Liam's story that he wrote at college and gave me to read for Easter. I wrote a story too, I wonder what he thought of mine.

I am thankful for… everything right now! During this Octave I am going to totally indulge in joy and gratitude.

From the kitchen… pancakes and sausages for breakfast. Clare made a great chocolate cake with cooked, fudge frosting. She made it on Friday and Saturday and we ate it yesterday -- I think I will call it a Triduum cake.

In our school room… it's really the world, right now. Studies resume tomorrow.

I am creating… stories, I guess! I had so much fun writing the first one that I want to write another. Wish me luck!

I am going … to a Cranio-Sacral class this afternoon. Aidan's OT is holding it at another mom's house. I know I should go and that I'll be glad I did, but I really would rejoice if she called and said it was postponed. Easter Monday, Sean's last day on break and Liam has to go back to college on Wednesday. I don't want to leave the house for a whole afternoon!

I am wearing… dark blue jeans I found at the thrift store last weeek. Sports socks. A dark turquoise knit top, longsleeved. My sister in law cleaned out her closet and yesterday, when we went to my parents-in-laws' house for Easter brunch, my mother in law had laid out all the clothes and shoes and handbags in her room and put up a sign ("1 Day only -- Kloset Kleaning event") and most of the female relatives took a couple of things home. Thrift stores and giveaways are about the closest I come to fashion events. Not complaining though -- I love bargains, and I dislike the feeling of a brand-new garment -- takes several washings to break one in, so I'm glad when someone saves me the trouble!

I am reading… finished reading "The House that Wouldn't Go Away" by Paul Gallico. I'm still working on "Bringing up Geeks" by Marybeth Hicks.

I am hoping… to declutter in a big way.

I am hearing…hockey on the X-Box, Sean coughing, Aidan talking about the week's schedule ("What's on Thursday?" "Monday's NOTHING") etc.

Around the house… the scattering syndrome. Decluttering always messes up the house. It's freezing! Our firewood ran out and we resist turning on the central heating, so it's about 60 degrees around here.

One of my favorite things… I love the Easter Octave. I love Cadbury chocolate eggs. I love having the whole family at home around me. I love getting to hang out on the blogosphere (I was limiting it during Lent). I love staying at home. I love having some new (used) clothes to wear.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week… work back into a study schedule. See Sean off to school. Liam to the Amtrak. Go to the library. Get the house into a bit more order. Get tickets for trip to Alaska to visit my parents. Pray for Liam as he undergoes his thesis defense on Thursday. Continue the Divine Mercy novena. Enjoy the graces and blessings of this joyous season. He is risen, Alleluia!

Here are a few picture thoughts I am sharing with you…

Liam took this picture of the new chapel at TAC.

Clare and Patrick on Easter family celebration.

One of the cakes Clare made.

Sierra Highlights #10

My Occasional Daybook

Weather:

The rain turned to snow... only about 4 inches though... manageable!

Watching:

Toy Story II. One of Aidan's nurses, who was from China, used to sing "When Somebody Loved Me" in the sweetest voice to him while she assessed him at the beginning of her night shift ---it soothed Aidan AND me : ). Clare can play it on the piano. I think the video montage got to Paddy, though; he's never watched it before.

From the Library:

Found on the Dime Rack: Lovey by Mary McCracken, The Story of Ferdinand, Renascence and Other Poems (by Edna St Vincent Millay), and a book by Avi -- don't remember the name. I'm reading Lovey now. I read her book Dibs: In Search of Self when I was babysitting the little boys of a couple who were both psychiatrists. And a year or two ago I read her book called City Kid. She seems like quite a great teacher.

Checked out: The Great Gatsby (Clare) and of course Toy Story II.

Strange Things Heard in the Car:

Get your noble head away from me!
(said by Sean to Aidan).

Strange Things Heard Elsewhere:

Everyone in the family seems to be putting their own words to "Beware of the Blob"
Did you know that was Steve McQueen's first movie? My husband has been on a Steve McQueen netflix trail. But enough said on that.

Hearing:

Kids laughing. So nice when an 18 year old, a 13 year old, a 9 year old and a 6 year old all laugh together about the same thing.

Smelling:

Freshly ground and brewed coffee. I just made some.

Re-Discovered Delight:

Tea! Kevin bought some Double Bergamot Earl Grey . I've gotten in the habit of drinking it in the evening.

Squirrel Tally:

We're up to five released into the wild,well away from our house.

Seeing:

Another little Douglas Squirrel running along the outside log towards the interior of our ceiling!! So a few more to go!

Something I need to do today:

Vacuum!

Here are some formats for weekly thought-collectors that I really like:

Kimberly at Catholic Family Vignettes: A Busy Mom's Weekly Reflections
Amy at Epiphany Springs: Think About These Things Thursday

A Photo Thought:

My dad's new dog. He's a 10 year old German Shepherd, but my dad suspects he's part wolf. You don't think???? But isn't he the coolest dog that ever loped down a carpeted hall? I probably won't get to see him IRL for a couple of months yet, since my parents live outside of Anchorage! But my dad says he's a great dog and is getting used to his new home.

Sierra Highlights #9

My occasional daybook.

Notable Events: Sean gets Monday off school and has his birthday coming up this week.

Nature: Brendan tells me the barometer spout is full, so maybe we shall have snow. Still a lot of snow on the ground out there, though it has turned icy and unwelcoming.

Literacy: Aidan has been poring through 100 Easy Lessons, buttonholing everyone who comes near him. "S-I-T -- what does that say?" Also picking out words he knows in the hymnal at mass. He gets so thrilled when he recognizes one, like just now, on a racing game, "That says GO!" (possible disadvantage to unschooling -- you sit with a kid for over an hour browsing through 100 Easy Lessons because HE wants to, though you'd probably rather get back to your tea and book or at least make the session more like a Proper Lesson with yourself asking the questions).

Religion: Paddy at mass, whispering loudly and earnestly after the Old Testament reading: "Mom, it said that Samuel heard the Lord calling him but he didn't know who it was calling!" I'm not sure what impressed him, but obviously something did.

Personal Health: (January Challenge) Not doing too well on "portion control" as they call it. Otherwise OK. ... on drinking tea in the evening for extra fluid, taking vitamins and fish oil, and more "incidental" exercise.

House Blessings: Trying to tidy up as I go and keep baby wipes handy so I can do a quick restoration when I see dust or grime. We get a lot of dust in this house because of the mountain landscape and the wood stove. I see one of my earlier Sierra Highlights mentioned trying to find joy in cleaning and it is happening.... a bit... not as joyful as a Mint Grasshopper cookie though.

Music: Clare and I have played together a couple of times, anything from Neil Young and Bob Dylan to Turkey in the Straw to Ashokan Farewell.

Movies: Almost finished with Bleak House, and the older kids and Kevin have been watching more Perry Masons.

Favorite Recent Toys: Tops (Aidan), Beanie Babies (Paddy), Bionicles (Kieron).

Conversations: Whether and on what grounds rock music is to be condemned (Clare, Brendan and me having fun with Ignatian-style scholastic debate); various arcana about Spiderman (Kieron); various scattered details about school life (Sean).

Sports: Sean's kick returns for 2008. Kevin made the film to put up on one of those scouting sites. Sean got 3 touchdowns out of 6 returns that season. Exciting for the crowd when he got his hands on the ball after the kickoff; he really is a fast kid for a freshman. He didn't get it from me, so I can say that even though I'm his mom.

Sierra Highlights #8

Wow, when you get out of the habit of blogging it really disappears fast. I can't think of what to say now; this is not at at all typical of me. Or at least, all kinds of blogging ideas come to me when I'm wiping the bathroom counter or fixing lunch, but when I sit down at the laptop all I want to do is play Geo Challenge on Facebook : ). More proximately, I want to beat my husband on Geo Challenge, which is a futile endeavour since every time I pull ahead of him on points, he immediately goes and beats my record. Is there a word for this condition?

So I'll just chat, for now. Maybe it's a good time for a Sierra Highlight?

Recent Events:

• Liam is home from college -- arrived on Friday.
• While in town to pick him up, we ventured into Target on the Friday evening before Christmas, and lived to tell about it!
• While in town, we also did some major and badly needed grocery shopping. Our outdoor freezer and pantry are stuffed now. This qualifies as an event because it is SO nice to settle down for the Christmas break knowing that I have enough provisions to keep getting meals on the table even if we happened to get snowed in -- which seems fairly likely judging from the weather report.
• Sean also is home for the winter break-- after witnessing a fight on the schoolbus on the way home on Friday. Christmas spirit ;-).

Weather

An unusual cold front that has lasted the past week. It has been in the 20's consistently. So our snow from last week has stayed on the ground and even the streets have a layer of packed snow, which is unusual for our area. Reminds me of my days growing up in Alaska, except the temp there was usually much lower than 20.
Family and Liturgical Life

• Everyone still coughing and sneezing from viruses.
• Kevin and Brendan cut down one of the many young trees on our lot and it is a BIG one. Yesterday evening after the vigil mass we decorated it. Here's a picture taken from the loft above, with Paddy for scale. It is easily 12 feet tall and makes me feel like I'm a hobbit, or six years old again, or in a hotel lobby, take your choice.
  

Can you see Liam's classical guitar over at the side?

Reading

• Acedia and Me -- also dipping into a book called Praying with Icons.
• The kids have been rereading the Harry Potter books.
• Brendan has taken up reading the Wall Street Journal regularly after Kevin reads it.
  

Schola:

We tied up Week 17. I haven't had the focus to do a Week in Review. Partly because we seem to be in one of our rich but scattered learning times, when writing it all out would take forever. I've been trying to dig through old boxes and drawers, discovering and strewing, and so the little ones are discovering lots of treasures they hadn't seen for a long time, if ever. Advent seems like a good time to do that.

Seeing:

• Sean and Brendan played Madden 2008.
• Aidan playing with Hot Wheels and a sort of combination storage case/race track.

Hearing

• Paddy downstairs, playing. He has his beanie babies down by the tree and is engaged in some game. My childrens' way of interacting with the Christmas tree is to incorporate it into their pretend play.
• Aidan upstairs, conducting the dialogue for his racing Hot Wheels. I love the way he pretend plays. He did not do it for years, and now he does, bringing in dialogue from his siblings, his dad and me. It is a great developmental step that I never appreciated enough with the other children.
• Kevin and Brendan talking about the Pats game, which isn't on our TV.

Near Future:

• Christmas, of course! Vigil Mass and the next day, brunch and celebration with our extended family.

Plans for the Break:

• Learn Flash programming with Kevin and Liam.
• Hang around with the family.
• Read more Herodotus and Plato.
• Learn to find joy in cleaning the house : ) -- a character struggle of mine right now.
• Organize all the homeschool-related piles.

Discussing:

• We seem to be talking about Lord of the Rings a lot.... movie vs book versions.

Grateful for:

• Time and family.

Kitchen Events:

• Kieron made some more simply beautiful peanut butter Tollhouse Cookies.
• I made lemon bread. The middle sank : (.
• I also made a great chicken pasta yesterday. I cubed chicken breast and simmered it in broth with a bit of white wine, along with some broccoli bits, then made a cream sauce with butter and flour, garlic, whole milk and a bit of sour cream, added some sharp cheddar and parmesan after it had thickened. I could have used some mushrooms or artichoke hearts but we didn't have those. Then we put it on top of linguine, along with garlic bread from Costco. The older kids and the parents had a bit of white wine. I also heated up some regular red spaghetti sauce so the younger kids could have that instead of the white sauce. It felt like a party, especially with the tree sparkling gently in the corner and 2o's type music playing in the background.

Aidan loves this wreath and carries it everywhere.

Sierra Highlights #7

My occasional Daybook.

Outside.... gray and cold. The first snowfall to stick was yesterday, though it is gone now.

Inside.... the wood stove makes it nice and warm in the center of the house, at least, though the perimeter is still chilly.

Waiting.... for Sean to get home from school. He gets the day off tomorrow! and has to study for an Earth Science test.

Catching up on.... laundry. It's been getting ahead of me these days.

In the Kitchen..... the freezer and pantry are a bit sparse right now. We are due for a shopping day. I will probably make tuna casserole, and supplement with fish sticks for the teen boys.

Schoolroom Events.... it's exam week.

Reading .... The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The title in French is more poetic: Scaphandre et la papillon. Kevin and I watched the screen version last week, so I requested the book.

Hearing.... Paddy singing the Mighty Mouse theme song. I know why he caught on to that. Kevin watched Man on the Moon last week, and talked about Andy Kaufman a bit to the teens.

Seeing.... Brendan pacing back and forth. Which means he is thinking. I asked him and he is physically thinking out a story. That's what I used to do. I should try it again sometime, actually.

Remembering..... for some reason, Jean Claude Killy. Maybe because of the book I'm reading. Killy was the graduation speaker at the school from which I graduated. My dad was impressed with his speech... on how important education is. This Olympic skier basically said he wished he had not devoted quite so many brain cells to his sport, because he had to live many more years than his athletic prowess lasted.

Recent Past -- we cleared our lot of tree-brush yesterday, since Smokey Bear had left a gentle note on our door saying that one of his representatives was going to come and check. Damp, cold, hard work but having five and a half workers (the half was Aidan) meant less than 2 hours of time to do about 10 man-hours of work.

Near Future -- Liam will come home for Thanksgiving, and Sean will play his last JV game.

Plans to Focus On -- holidays, and tackling the house, and getting things winter-ready.

Sierra Highlights #6

My occasional Daybook. Continued from here.

Events in Recent Past and Future:

• Last week was homecoming week for Sean's school, so he got to dress up every day.
• Kevin is staining the exterior logs on the house.
• Aidan got fitted with Thera-Togs.

Where Everyone Is:

Paddy is just waking up; Kieron is admiring his sand art velociraptor; Aidan is doing something on the other computer; everyone else is still asleep.

Recent Music:

Paul McCartney; Mozart's Requiem.

Recent Books Seen Around the House:

At the Back of the North Wind, The Dark is Rising (Kieron); Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict, Books on mountaineering by Arnold Lunn (Clare); The Sparrow, Socrates' Apology, We Die Standing Up (me), History of the American People (Brendan); The Gift of the Magi, one other short story (Sean)

Weather:

Nice fall weather. Crisp and bright.

Thoughts:

Redemptive suffering.

What I’m Working On:

Liam wanted me to try this Erudition Chamber. It is interactive fiction, which is somewhere between a text RPG and a story. Anyway I turned out 3 parts Seer and 1 part Alchemist. If you happen to try it let me know your results. It's sort of a personality test combined with an IF.

What I am Happy About:

Autumn.

What I’m Not So Happy About:

The way the house is looking.

Spiritual Focus:

Intercessory prayer.

Recent Kitchen Events:

Cooking with oatmeal. Oatmeal Scotchies are great in the fall.

Formal Academics:

Going pretty well, but running into my old problem of appropriate review, and keeping track.

Informal Learning:

Aidan counting, and writing words.

On the Screen:

BBC Jeeves and Wooster series.
NFL football.

Wearing:

Jeans, boots, thermal shirt, thermal vest.

Creating:

Lesson plans for Year 7 history.

Grateful for:

The wood stove; the oven; hot tea; boots I found at the thrift store. Warm things!!

Some things I want to do this week:

Get the house cleaner.

A Picture Thought:

Sean did an assignment "Mi Familia" for his Spanish 1 class. Here are the pictures that went along with the composition.

For the relatives and friends -- Kevin put up the most recent JV football videos at You-Tube -- he has been putting them to a soundtrack recently : ):

• Exeter Game (lost 7-13)
• Washington Union game (lost 20-40) -- Sean had a good kick return, about 90 yards for a touchdown, at the very beginning of the game. The rest was disappointing for our team.