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?

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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".