O, come, let us adore Him.

Merry Christmas to all. May you experience the love of Christ today and always.

Baby Jesus is here!

Cookie family

Coffee mama

Mih-muh. May-may mih-muh.
(see previous post)

Before Midnight Mass


With love from all of us and our prayers for a blessed New Year.

Homophones and other baby talk

As Meghan ventures into speaking multi-syllabic words, we sometimes find ourselves guessing (and giggling) at the things that sound alike when she says them:

Doggie--Daddy ( both are dahhh-dee) this can be confusing at bedtime when we're not sure what (or who) she is asking to cuddle with.

Teapot--treetop--and something else that I can't remember at the moment (all three are "tea pot" said very distinctly and with a pause between the syllables): very funny when Rock a bye Baby is being sung

up--cup (both are "bup") but it's usually not too bad since up is in the kitchen when we are cooking and cup is mostly at the table

Mary--Meghan: both are "May-may" Funny when she says "Tih (kiss) May-may" and wants to give a kiss to my kitchen Madonna rather than receiving one herself.

bow--bowl understandable, and not a problem in context

bed-bread: both are "Bem" but again we have context to help us

There are some others, which I will add when I remember them.

I love that she says "bank-bee" for her blanket.

Other words:
dew--juice
mil--milk (in a cup)
Tommy--yep, she learned his name just a few days before he got home
boh-way--boy
Mah-moo--beginning to interchange with BoBo for Matthew
No--although usually not in defiance, just in answer to questions like "do you want some milk?" answered in a worried tone "No. dew." She's very sweet and funny when she worries that we are about to do something that she doesn't want us to do. Not one of us can continue with whatever we wanted when she does that. Ahhh....the life of the youngest child. :)
Bup-buh--diaper
bow (bowl)
pate (plate and placemat)
feet
hans
toes
cheek
mou (th)
tee (th)
hay (hair)
eye (s)
eah (ear)
tummy
poo! (for a wet or dirty diaper, as in "please change this thing ASAP")
go! (as in, "Hey, you people, I want to go, too.")
toat (coat)
mih-muh (mittens)
haaa (hat) usually she likes the idea of the hat, but pulls it off only moments after we put it on

bow (all hair clips, whether actually bows or not) she also pulls these out almost immediately if we don't sneak them in properly

shuh (shirt) and particularly "heh-ha shuh" for her shirt with the hedgehog on it which she asks to wear almost daily

pan--pants

sah (for socks or tights)

shoe--sometimes very insistently if we are going out and she thinks she might not be going along Meghan LOVES shoes. She is fascinated by big shoes and takes them out of the shoe cabinet and walks around in them: mine, Joseph's, doesn't matter whose really)

"Shuh" for "Sure" when asked if she will help with something or if she wants to do something she wants to do or eat something she wants to eat (otherwise, "No." See above)

"Tute" cute

"Nice" when she likes something--like her Christmas presents. Every time she opened one, she said "Nice" and sometimes she laughed with great excitement. We laughed when she spent the time between her turns to open presents by putting the gifts back in the bags, taking them out, putting them back in, taking them out, over and over and over. By this evening, she was actually calling wrapped presents "nice" even before they were opened. And she was almost as enamored of the tissue paper as she was of the gifts. Almost. It turns out she like clothes. A lot. And tries to put them on when she receives them. Who needs TV?

sho-shay (horse)
various other animal sounds and a few names that are more or less accurate
You should hear her roar for lions and bears.

angy--angry (for the baby's expression in her Baby Faces book)
sad--same as above
puh-pld--for the page that says "puzzled"

Dayce--for her friend Grace (although she sometimes forgets and calls her May-may)
Doshie--for her friend Joshua (never called May-may)

chay--chair
towtch--couch
bem--bed & bread

Read! said very insistently with books being handed to us. This is one area where we are working hard on attaching please to the request.

And probably the cutest thing:
"MAh-mee-mah, I neen you." For I need you. She only says my name with three syllables when she says this sentence. It's sort of a game in which I am supposed to reply "Meg-gy-gah, I need you." or sometimes, she goes around the dinner table inserting other names and adding an extra syllable (doh-doh-dah for Joseph, who is usually Doh-doh) It's adorable.

Other sentences or almost sentences:
She tells me what she wants to eat by saying the name of the food and mouth or bowl or plate
e.g. Mommy, cheese, bow. Or Mommy, tooh-tee, mou (cookie, mouth)

In a variation of this, today when she received a pair of pink corduroy polka-dotted pants she wanted to put them on immediately. She brought them to me and said, "Mommy, pan, tummy." Pretty good for a 19-month-old.

"Tute baby" for pictures of babies anywhere

Read boh-way. For books with pictures of boys in them or on them. And she calls snowmen boys, too. I guess there's some logic to that.

"Own bem" This is what she calls her new toddler bed, which she now gets into willingly, says "Head" as she carefully lies down to remind herself not to bump her head on the headboard. She still kicks off the covers, gets cold or lonely and crawls into bed with us in the middle of the night. But I now usually get my side of the bed all to myself for at least a few hours of comfy sleeping bliss at night.

A flash of her sense of humor. The other day, she, purposely I think, called a stuffed animal that was not a horse a "Show-shay". I corrected her and said, no, that one is a (whatever it was, not even close to horse). She said 'show-shay" again, and I said the correct name again. With a twinkle in her eye, she said "Show-shay" a third time. And waited. And grinned, almost giggling, for me to respond with the correct word. Another word-playing child.

One Matthew note: The day before yesterday, the kids were playing Risk in the living room. Matthew was alternately being on Tommy's team and doing his own thing. At one point in the game, he said, "You know what I think of when I hear you say 'take over'? I think of a black guy leaning over with his tongue sticking out." (by 'black guy' he means a man wearing black--all people whose names he doesn't know are labeled with the color they are wearing, as in "Mommy, why is that green lady going up the stairs?") A random glimpse into the working of his mind. We get more of these for Matthew than some other children because most of what goes through his mind comes out his mouth. It can be very strange and funny, and we smile a lot over this.

Happy 18, Patrick!

chocolate raspberry cake
Good choice!

As long as there are friends....

Make a wish.

Got it!

May God grant you many years, Patrick.
With love,
Mom

"O" Antiphons

To learn more about these prayers for the last days of Advent, go to this link:

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0374.html

Thanks for the link, Mom. We have a lot of fun with the "O" Antiphons. Today, for example, is the day that we buy our poinsettias for the house. "O flower of Jesse..." :)

Pious Sodality of...Marshmallow Shooters?

This is too good not to share. Should be a must-have for any family likely to be trapped indoors periodically.

St. Andrew Novena

Elizabeth Foss posted a photo of the St. Andrew chaplets that she and her family made last Advent. I was inspired to do the novena this Advent with our family. I might even order some beads and medals. :)

This fall, I have been feeling very stretched between my toddler and high school senior (not to mention the three in between and the one far away), and we've taken school down a notch for the younger children. During Advent, we will do our math, read lots of beautiful Advent and Christmas stories, and create beautiful things. Our Mother Church has given us this time to prepare our hearts for the coming of the Holy Child. I want to soak up the beauty and joy of this preparatory season and do as Elizabeth said,

"In our family, we have long set aside this season for digging deeply into traditions. We do much, much more crafting than we do at any other time of year. Our academic work is narrowed to math, lots of reading from great picture books and Christmas-themed chapter books, and lots of narrating. We focus on Advent devotions and drink deeply from the well of our Church. It's a busy time and we all learn so much.At some point, Michael returns from college and fits right in--more than any other time of the year, this time is familiar and warm and welcoming for him. After immersion in faith and family, we return to "school as usual" in January more relaxed and more connected to one another and to our Savior because of our Advent traditions. It works for us."

This sounds exactly like the place I would like our family to be this Advent and Christmas.

So we begin with the St. Andrew novena, a tiny moment for God each day in the midst of all the preparatory rush.

“Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, O my God! To hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

We are praying for so many things and people right now that it would be impossible to list them all here. Please know that if you are reading this, you are probably on the list, too, for all your intentions, spiritual and temporal needs this holy season.

And who knew that St. Andrew was the patron Saint for women trying to conceive? If you know of anyone who needs this prayer, you can add it to your own devotions, along with the prayer to Our Lady of la Leche in the sidebar. :)

Altar serving

This morning was Joseph's first time serving at Mass. He was a little nervous before Mass.



After Mass, he confessed that last night he had a dream that he was at church to serve for the first time, but we were there early--before the 8 a.m. Protestant service that precedes the 9:30 Catholic Mass. In his dream, he put on his cassock and surplice and was ready to serve, but didn't have a candle, and it was time for the entrance procession, so he went forward with the procession anyway, but then he realized that it was the Protestant service, and he wasn't supposed to be there, so he had to escape through a pew and out the side door of the church.

Whew! Thank goodness it was only a dream!

You did a fine job, Joseph. Dad and I are very proud of you.

Last Race

The last 5K race of the year was today. It was a fitting finish to the running season--windy and raining.

We learned a little bit more about cold weather running. One needs fewer clothes later in the race than at the beginning. If it's raining, it's rather pointless trying to stay dry.

Only about 100 people showed up this month instead of the usual 300 to 400. Everyone stayed inside the gym until about 3 minutes before the start. The organizers yelled "Go!" as soon as most of us were at the line.

The first part of the race was the same as usual--jostling for position and trying to settle into a pace. We had the wind behind us for the first half. That wouldn't last, since we were running an out-and-back route. My glasses were just rain covered until we got to the turn-around. Then, with the wind blowing in our faces, my glasses fogged up. To avoid runners, puddles and other obstacles, I had to look over them once in a while.

With the discomfort of the weather, it was nearly impossible to settle into a good rhythm. Katie must have felt the same way, especially since her knees started hurting her a quarter of the way through. If the rain bothered Patrick, it was hard to tell. He and his friend Rye (also a cross-country runner) were near the front of the pack for the entire race. At the finish, Rye was second and Patrick was fifth. There was no official timer, so we don't know our actual times. There were about 30 people waiting at the finish when I arrived. Katie came in a couple minutes after I did.

The two of us looked for Patrick in the gym, then headed back to our car. We found him when we found Rye's car. The only thing on anyone's mind was getting home and taking a hot shower. The hot chocolate waiting for us was a perfect consolation.

The support crew at home before the race

Patrick arrives home again

Katie glad to be done

John still dripping in the doorway

The damp and dreary weather

Vocabulary lessons

Matthew, telling Joseph about some jack-o-lantern pictures that he colored:

"This pumpkin is astonished. That's why I drew his mouth like a big 'o'."

One more thing

Can I just share that when Meghan reaches up for my kitchen Madonna and signs "please" and when given the statue to hold, bestows kisses on Mary and Baby Jesus I think it is one of the sweetest things any of my children have ever done?

Okay, back to Patrick's transcripts and relative radio silence.

Halloween

I wanted to share an article from First Things that I saw linked on Melanie Bettenelli's blog.

Another Catholic homeschooling mom and I were talking about this very thing just before All Hallow's Eve. Our experience here is so different from the U.S. The base is flooded--literally: my friend went through 20 bags of candy in under an hour at one piece per child--with local Japanese children who want to trick-or-treat. Our evangelical protestant friends participate in church activities. Lutheran friends shared that they spent the day singing hymns in celebration of "Reformation Day". The chapel offers an alternative to Halloween "Harvest Party" on the 31st during the on-base trick-or-treating hours of 6-9 p.m.

Back in the U.S., we trick-or-treated at the homes of friends and celebrated with a big All Saints' Day party with our homeschool co-op. Our former pastor here invited the kids wear Saint costumes to the All Saints Day Mass for a couple of years, but the new pastor hasn't carried on the tradition. So the only emphasis on that will come from our own efforts. I miss the support we received from our parish back home in our efforts to infuse the Faith into our children's lives by celebrating the events of the liturgical year.

My only quibble with the First Things article is that I do think the connections between Halloween, All Saint's Day, and All Soul's Day are more clearly made if the children's Halloween costumes are somehow connected to a Saint. I admit that we apply that principle pretty loosely around here, but it is still the undercurrent of the feast. This year, for example, Katie was a baker (connection: St. Elizabeth of Hungary, patroness of bakers), Joseph was Luke Skywalker (St. Joseph of Cupertino, patron of pilots), and Matthew was a robot (St. Martin de Porres, servant in his monastery, as robots are servants of the people who use them--a stretch, I know, but there isn't any St. Roboticus...). Meghan was easier--she wore the baby angel costume I made for Patrick back when we lived in Turkey and the kids trick-or treated at the various offices on Ankara Air Station.

Anyway, the article expressed so many of my thoughts on the subject so well that I don't really feel the need to write anything else. But I wanted to share with you "The Drama of Hallowmas".

Pumpkin Carving

Here's a short look at our Halloween Eve pumpkin carving extravaganza.

(Password: jack)

Halloween Pumpkin Carving from John & Judith Riordon on Vimeo.

Meghan's New Ride

We recently resurrected an old friend for Meghan to ride. She's good at it, but she doesn't stay on very long.

Baptism day

It's my baptism day. In celebration, I'm going to share a link to a blog that I have been enjoying recently.

Standing on my Head


In addition, a donation has been made to the charity of my choice. :-)

And cake for dessert.

Altogether a happy day.

So what's homeschooling really like?

Mom's-eye-view

It is a busy life and a happy one. This weekend, I filled out a survey from Georgetown Law about my work experiences since law school. It was something I hadn't thought about in awhile, and I realized that it has been 10 years since I last worked outside our home. Wow. That's much longer than I thought I would be out of the work force when I first came home to school Tommy and Patrick and baby Katie. And yet it appears that in recent years, I haven't dwelt on it long enough even to notice how long we have been homeschooling. Something must be going right. It is certainly true that we are happy with the homeschooling lifestyle. In the beginning, I thought, "one day at a time, one year at a time." Now, I can't imagine it any other way. (Okay, well, some days, I can very easily imagine it a lot of other ways. But truly, God has blessed our family life abundantly through this homeschooling adventure.)

Some details for the record:

We are schooling at the dining room table this year. The guinea pig cage took over our school table. It isn't ideal because we can't leave anything out during lunch or dinner. But then again, we are forced to clean it all up at lunch and dinner time. ;)

I still miss the school room we had in Yakima. We worked on the dining room table, but ate most meals at the kitchen table and had the whole living room/dining room area for bookshelves, preschool corner, and even a couch and rocking chair for reading time. Then again, the opportunity to experience Japan first-hand mostly makes up for the inconvenience of a smaller home. And we are blessed with a house that is larger than many here. So no complaints, really. Just a little wistful longing for a designated school space.

As for schooling with a toddler around:

(password: book)

Homeschool Challenge from John & Judith Riordon on Vimeo.

Meghan has taken to climbing onto my book basket to reach my lap as we do our schoolwork in the mornings. She's very curious about all the things we work with and try to keep out of her reach on the table.

We have been addressing the challenge of schooling with a 17-month-old over the past month and have found a few things that work.

1. She is content to sit in her high chair and color for15-20 minutes each morning. We collected a pile of Matthew's fat crayons that he was no longer using and put them in a special plastic container with her name on it. Meghan's Crayons.

2. During school hours, we move her toy basket out to the dining room so that an allowable distraction is always close at hand.

3. Matthew is assigned to play blocks with her during Joseph's math lesson, and I think Joseph is going to be taking her outside in the yard during Katie's math lesson. We'll rotate through the day that way, with the older children taking turns having "Meghan breaks".

4. Note to self: need to move some of Matthew's activities to higher shelves and put some Meghan activities on the bottom shelves now. After Patrick's transcript is current!

Having been through this with both Joseph and Matthew already, I can be (mostly) peaceful about this temporary phase. Each month, she will get better at independent play. Before we know it, she will reach the point that Matthew now has: she will decide which activity she wants to work on, retrieve it from the shelf or cabinet, bring it to the table, do the work, and then put it back. In the meantime, God is teaching all of us patience and the true meaning of love.

Travel

We keep hoping to get to Nagasaki while we're in Japan. Here's the main reason why.

26 Martyrs Museum

Sunday

Some thoughts to consider at Fr. Lomngnecker's blog.

45!

Wow, that sure is old.


But you're still going strong!


Sharing what you love with our children...young...








and old.






Teaching them how they should go.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit."
Jeremiah 17: 7-8

Happy birthday to my dear husband.

German chocolate cake is on its way,

Judy

New Words:

New Words: ‘A Deeper Meaning, But the Same Mass’ is a statement from Cardinal Rigali about Philadelphia's plans for educating the faithful in the new Mass translation. We've heard nothing about it yet in the Archdiocese for the Military Services. I'm curious if there's any discussion/training happening in any of your dioceses yet. Anyone?

Posted using ShareThis

Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux

"There is one ONLY THING to do here below: to love Jesus, to win souls for Him so that He may be loved. Let us seize with jealous care every least opportunity of self sacrifice. Let us refuse Him nothing - He does so want our love!"

VI letter to her sister Celine

"Love!...that is what I ask...I know but one thing now - to love Thee, O Jesus! Glorious deeds are not for me, I cannot preach the Gospel, shed my ...what does it matter? My brothers toil instead of me, and I, the little child, I keep quite close to the royal throne, I love for those who fight."

Story of A Soul, Chapter XI

Meghan with a statue of St. Therese, one of her patron Saints,
at the Trappestine Convent, Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan
August 15, 2009

We celebrated Meghan's name day today with applesauce spice cake for dessert followed by a special Name Day Blessing from Daddy.

I searched high and low for a St. Therese holy card to put on the table with our Easter candle tonight. I never found one, although I'm sure we have at least one. I had to use Story of a Soul instead.

"Mmmmm," said the g irl of the hour as she poked her forefinger into the frosting. She hadn't even tasted it yet. How did she know?

Her impression was confirmed a second later when she got her finger into her mouth. "Mmmmmm....."

"Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing."

Story of a Soul, Chapter VIII

How she enjoyed her cake!



"Oh! What mysteries will be revealed to us later... How often have I thought that I perhaps owe all the graces showered upon me to the earnest prayer of a little soul whom I shall know only in Heaven. It is God's will that in this world by means of prayer Heavenly treasures should be imparted by souls one to another, so that when they reach the Fatherland they may love one another with a love born of gratitude, with an affection far, far exceeding the most ideal family affection upon earth."

Counsels and Reminiscences

Happy name day, Margaret Maire-Therese!

October

At the end of the Morning Offering we pray,"and in particular for the intentions recommended by our holy father this month." So I thought it would be good to start to make note of the Holy Father's intentions. So we'd know exactly what we are praying for.

Why I didn't think of this back (about 10 years ago) when we started praying the Morning Offering daily I'll never know.

BENEDICT XVI’S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR OCTOBER

VATICAN CITY, 30 SEP 2009 (VIS) – Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for October is: "That Sunday may be lived as the day on which Christians gather to celebrate the risen Lord, participating in the Eucharist".

His mission intention is: "That the entire People of God, to whom Christ entrusted the mandate to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, may eagerly assume their own missionary responsibility and consider it the highest service they can offer humanity".

Race the Base 5K

Today, John and Katie ran a 5 kilometer race. It took place on base in conjunction with a half marathon, a 10K and 3K races. It was John's first competitive race in almost 30 years and Katie's first one ever. All things considered, they did great! They both ran their personal best times at that distance ;^) It gave Katie a chance to see what a race is like before her first cross-country meet next Saturday.

John on the home stretch

Katie about a kilometer from the finish

Meghan waiting for the runners

If there's another race next month, they might just do it again.

Pottery

The Arts & Crafts Center on base now offers homeschool art class on Friday mornings. This is great news for us because the class used to be held on Wednesdays, which was too disruptive to our school schedule. By Friday, we are finished (enough) with our work for the week and ready to venture out to activities.

This month, we have spent a joyful hour each week making pinch pots, coil pots, and slab pots (well, sushi plates from slabs). We have learned about kilns (not ovens), firing (not baking), and glazing with brightly-colored glazes.

Matthew, especially, has had a wonderful time. He has needed my direction during the class to keep him on task, but he is able to work with the clay, and results have been very satisfying. He loves that he has made dishes that he can really use.

Matthew's "Breakfast Set" of bowl, cup, and pitcher.

These are pinch pots, which he made and glazed, at least the first coat of each, himself.

Joseph also made a bowl and cup for his breakfast. His design was more considered. From his work, we learned an important lesson about glaze: you have to read the labels before painting it on because before firing, the colors are very different from afterward. Joseph thought he used the same blue glaze on the cup as he had used the week before on the bowl, but it turned out to be a much brighter blue. Still very attractive, but not matching. Thankfully, he's happy with the result anyway.

Joseph's cereal bowl and juice cup

Next week, we'll get our sushi plates and coil pots (pencil holders) out of the kiln. Then on to more pottery adventures in October. :-)

Tickles

While I was taking video of Meghan eating breakfast yesterday, Matthew sat down across the table with his breakfast. Meghan cast an adoring glance his way, and then pretended to tickle him. He responded by making tickling sounds and wiggling his fingers at her. Here it is with apologies for the shaky bit at the beginning. I was adjusting the camera angle to avoid showing you the pile of clutter on the kitchen counter. ;-) (password: tickle)

M Tickled Pink from John & Judith Riordon on Vimeo.

Breakfast

Meghan ate big-people oatmeal with peaches for the first time today.

(password: oatmeal)

M at Breakfast from John & Judith Riordon on Vimeo.

I was so happy about her neatness--until lunchtime when she spread her yakisoba across her tray, her bib, and herself. She is still a 15-month-old, and luckily, her cuteness makes up for most of it. ;-)

First haircut

Meghan's bangs have been in her eyes, so Katie and I decided it was time for her first haircut. I just trimmed her bangs a little, but it made her look much older.

She wasn't sad when I cut her hair, but she didn't want to stay in place to have her picture taken.



While we were playing beauty shop, we made some pigtails, too. She wouldn't let me do them until Katie had the brilliant idea of letting Meghan brush her hair while I brushed Meghan's.

Once we let her get down, she started dancing around. A new haircut dance?

Maybe it's the new pigtails dance.


Here she is later with the pigtails out. She has those cute curls in back all the time. Her whole head gets curly after her bath and on humid days, just like Katie's did.