Living Without School

To ad lib....

2012-01-24T22:56:00.000+11:00

To ad lib.

To add our own words, our own thoughts, to an occasion.

The ability to ad lib can be considered good, when one is a situation that requires us to wing it.. When a mishap occurs during a presentation, when I have to explain a little further in one of my public talks or presentations.

But even then I have to be careful that my ad libbing stays on topic, is relevant even if amusing, is not self indulgent patter but has a purpose. I am not there to deviate from the set topic.

And so, just as there are limitations to ad lib commentary in my public speaking, how much more are there limitations to ad lib commentary in Holy Mass?

You know where I am going with this.

The new translation of the missal is very clear... The priest says this. The priest says that. The rubrics do not say that one can say words of similar meaning or what one thinks is of similar effect .

It is annoying to have a priest ad lib throughout mass. To add his own words prior to and post the consecration. Even well meaning words.

No, it is more than annoying. It leads to liturgical problems, to pave the way for other priests to administer what constitutes liturgical abuse, to misguided words that can be misinterpreted and that can thus lead to misunderstandings of the faith on the part of the faithful. It can lead to something akin to heresy.

And it's downright banal and trivial and to be honest, a pain to sit through ad lib comments ad infinitum in mass, when you are trying to pray and to worship, as an individual and as part of a community.

"Liturgy is never anyone's private property, be it of the celebrant or of the community in which the mysteries are celebrated.... Priests who faithfully celebrate Mass according to the liturgical norms, and communities which conform to those norms, quietly but eloquently demonstrate their love for the Church". ( Ecclesia Eucharistia (52), Pope John Paul II )

Learning from St Agnes

2012-01-23T23:10:00.000+11:00

"Today is the birthday of a virgin, let is imitate her purity." (St Ambrose on St Agnes)

I read the Office of Readings on my bus trip last Saturday.

And I wondered what it is that I, a married woman, a wife, teacher and mother, can learn from St Agnes.

I think the Church venerates the saints for us, not that we become discouraged by the distance we see between their virtuous lives and our own life of mundane struggles.

But that we are uplifted by the lives of sanctity, of hope, of faith.

Even in times of turmoil, of fear, of temptation.

St Ambrose wrote of the trembling and hesitation and yes, even awe on the part of the executioner, he who was given the task of executing St Agnes, aged twelve or so.

This is the trembling and hesitation and awe we can feel when we read of the saints.. Trembling at the thought of living an extraordinary life, hesitation at the thought of living our ordinary lives extraordinarily, awe and wonder in our faith and worship.

What can we learn from St Agnes? This faith, this awe, this trembling.

And this is why the Church reminds us of the saints

To give us mentors and encouragement. To inspire awe and virtue.

Strewing their paths...

2012-01-18T16:58:00.000+11:00

Its that time of the week again. When we share our strewing.

My strewing this week had been both intentional and unintentional.

Intentional strewing...strewing with a purpose or with forethought .

This week it is a novel by Madeleine L'engle. A Wrinkle in Time.

I first read this at age twelve. I have read it aloud to classes I have taught. I have read it aloud to some of my kids and others have read it themselves.

Except Anthony. Who is sporadically studying physics, with occasional use of a Saxon Physics text and occasional reading of Six Easy Pieces by Dr Richard Feynman.

His interest is not high. Hence sporadic study. So I thought A Wrinkle in Time would be a good complement. Physics related literature and a darn good story. L'engle is a talented storyteller. And it just happens to be the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of A Wrinkle in Time this year!

Unintentional strewing? Strewing and sparks that happen in every day life, almost serendipitously.

Watching episodes of series one of Fringe, a Christmas gift. The science of the weird, of cloning, of regeneration and a FBI story to boot.

Fits in well with A Wrinkle in Time, doesn't it?

Contemplation

2012-01-17T22:23:00.000+11:00

Contemplation

What is the role of contemplation in the life of a layperson?

It is both interior and active.

What do I mean?

There is a point in St Bonaventure's Itinerarium that describes this contemplative life. And I think it applies comfortably to the lives of we laity, praying and living in the world, so to speak.

St Bonaventure discusses a moment when he was praying at the spot where St Francis of Assisi received the stigmata. St Bonaventure saw the significance of this event in the light of humanity, of the world, of the history of the Church. At this spot, at the point of receiving the stigmata, says St Bonaventure, "...Saint Francis passed over into God ( in Deum transit) in the ecstasy (excessus) of contemplation and thus he was set up as an example of perfect contemplation just as he had previously been an example of perfection in the active life in order that God, through him, might draw all truly spiritual men to this kind of passing over ( transitus) and ecstasy, less by word than by example." (Itinerarium)

This is what Thomas Merton calls the "only one vocation".

Wherein we are called to an interior life, to prayer, to prayerand work, to a relationship with our Creator. And then to share, pass on, the fruits of contemplation, His Love, to others. Be they our children, our family, our spouses, our friends, fellow parishioners, our work colleagues, our neighbours.

We may do this imperfectly. God knows I do.

We are called, in the words of Merton, " to become fused into one spirit with Christ in the furnace of contemplation and then go forth and cast upon the earth that same fire which Christ wills to see enkindled." ( The Seven Storey Mountain)

Encouraging Readers

2012-01-17T22:11:00.000+11:00

Encouraging readers.

I hear of many ways to encourage our children to become readers.

Books on CD, read alouds, share picture books, create reading nooks, watch book related movies, buy books, visit libraries.

We do all these.

But the single biggest helper has been my example.

I read myself.

I strew books for myself.

I create reading lists for myself.

I talk about my reading,

I share excerpts.

The kids have grown up knowing that I value reading.

Even if they never read themselves (they do!), they know reading is important, a past time, a way of opening up other worlds and other ideas.

So, what are you strewing for yourself, reading wise, as a homeschooling mother?

Here are some of my Christmas and post Christmas reads...

The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton.....I love this book. I had to read it again. His description of the search within each of us for Truth wrings my soul. It's me. It'smany others I know. Talking with the kids today at lunch, about authors with whom we identify, about authors whom we wish to emulate ...for me it's Merton. I want to write like Merton.

What's Eating You? by Katherine Alleume. Why do we eat what we eat? This question has puzzled the nutritionist author and she asks us to make conscious eating decisions, conscious rationalizations. A similar take to that Intuitive Eating book. But something I am still trying to tackle...I am a stress eater and there is a point where enough is enough.

Contemplative Prayer by Merton. A deep interior life that reaches out and shares with others.

The YouCat. The "youth inspired version" of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I want to read it before recommending it to others. And the many side bar quotes have sparked discussion here....why include that? Great definition of religion (relationship with God). Some good pre and post Vatican II stuff ( yes the Church existed pre Vatican II!). Some great quotes and some what the ? quotes.

Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire by Mireille Giuliano. A Christmas gift. Bringing style and pleasure to life. Balancing life and work. My sort of book. "Quality of life is very important in France. I have many friends who turned down promotions and more money because it would affect their quality of life as a couple or a mother. I was pleased to hear this. This is not a sign of weakness." Very true. It is not.

The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers by Meg Meeker. Subtitled Reclaiming our passion, purpose and sanity....I have read about this on homeschooling blogs and even though I am on a buying less binge, er, lifestyle, I had to pick it up when I saw it, the very last copy, at Portico Books. Why? I need my passion. I need my sanity. And I have been inspired by the few quotes I have read on other blogs. "If every mother in the United States could wrap her mind around her true value as a woman and mother, her life would never be the same.”

Read. Strew. Share.

Strewsday Thursday

2012-01-05T19:19:00.000+11:00

It's Strewsday Tuesday!

Well, officially it's Strewsday Thursday but that doesn't fit now, does it?

What have we strewed this week..for learning...in our unschooling life?

Museums. Again.

We seem to have a penchant for museums, wandering around, looking at those displays and objects that catch our eyes.

On Friday, it was the National Museum in Sydney. We mostly explored dinosaurs and native Australia.

And the National Geographic Wildlife photo competition.

On Tuesday we explored the Melbourne Museum. In which I was enamoured of the Melbourne Gallery....Photos and artifacts and memorabilia from old Melbourne.

I sat in a 1960s sitting room and watched old TV shows....Homicide, IMT.

I fell in love with kitchen appliances from the 50s and 60s...A cute pink Mixmaster. A cunning Spacemaster refrigerator.

Then today we visited ACMI again...a Melbourne perennial, Australian Centre for Moving Images. And again I was immersed in digital technology. Indi gaming and early Aussie cop dramas.

Museums are like microcosms of the unschooling life. Bits of information presented here and there, glimpses of possible future interest or passions or rabbit trails, discussion starters, learning via absorption.

Easy, interesting, family time strewing.

The word for the year...

2012-01-04T20:55:00.000+11:00

On Facebook, my friend Julie, of Bravewriter, has taken up that idea of a word (theme, motto) for the year.

We choose our word for the year, we keep it close, it's a prompt, a reminder, something or someone to which we aspire.

But Julie has taken that idea one step further.

She has decided to, perhaps, post daily updates on her word and this her life. Daily updates on Facebook.

Julie's word is conscientious.

Mine is calm.

In the spirit of calm what did I do today?

Prayed at Mass, a reverent Mass, Benediction, Latin, a homily reminding us that yes, sin exists and yes, choices matter.

Mass and praying the Divine Office helped my inner calm.

As did being on holiday. Hanging out with family and a friend. And keeping my To Do list to a minimum.

Yes, I keep a To Do list on holiday.

I don't know how not to!

Praying the Divine Office

2012-01-02T23:34:00.002+11:00

"I did not even reflect how the Breviary, the Canonical Office, was the most powerful and effective prayer I could have possibly chosen , since it is the prayer of the whole Church, and concentrates in itself all the power of the Church's impetration, centered around the infinitely mighty Sacrifice of the Mass - the jewel of which the rest of the Liturgy is the setting: the soul which is the life of the whole Liturgy and of all the Sacramentals. ....

Yes, and from the secret places of His essence, God began to fill my soul with grace in those days, grace that sprung from deep within me, I could not know how or where. But yet I would be able, after not so many months, to realize what was there, in the peace and the strength that were growing in me through my constant immersion in this tremendous, unending cycle of prayer, ever renewing its vitality, it's inexhaustible, sweet energies, from hour to hour, from season to season in its returning round. And I, drawn into that Atmosphere, into that deep, vast universal movement of vitalizing prayer, which is Christ praying in men to His Father, could not help but being at last to live, and to know that I was alive."

I want to write like Thomas Merton.. Taken from his Seven Storey Mountain, this so vey eloquently describes my experience of praying the Divine Office these last eighteen months or so.

The seasons change, I move from chilly icy winter mornings before work to warm and snug summer evenings, from a snatched prayer in my bedroom to quiet prayer in a church, to praying the Office relaxing on the green sofa.

And the time passes I feel the daily prayers, joining with the mind of the Church, the prayer if the Church, praying with others praying the Office throughout the world. I feel it. I mentally comprehend it. My soul stirs. My heart softens . And I let down those little barriers. The ones I build to protect myself, to stop being vulnerable to hurt. As if those barriers are always a good thing.

These fences come down. Bit by bit, as I pray the Office, the Psalms, as I ponder the Readings.

Of course, my daily life happens. And the little walls start building again, to protect myself and to protect others.

But I come back each morning, each night, to the Divine Office. And the scales, the walls, the fences, the barriers, are removed once again.

And that's why a mother should pray the Office. Even if prayed imperfectly.

For the chance to know and adore God and to know and love others and to know herself.

For His Grace in her every day, never stopping life.

A word for 2012

2011-12-30T22:54:00.000+11:00

We do not put our faith in empty phrases, we are not carried off by sudden impulses of the heart, we are not seduced by plausible and eloquent speech, - but we do not refuse belief to words spoken by divine power. ( from the Treatisr of St Hipppolytus )

Words. Not empty words. But words for the year.

Each year I choose a word, a theme, for the year. Something to which I aspire..

I write it in my diary.

I try to live life on purpose.

And many times I fail...

The last two years a group of us have met, between Christmas Day and New Years Eve, to share our year. To share our laughter. Our jokes. Our stresses. Our shallow words in jest...the not so serious fun themes...and our serious words and thoughts for the year.

Mine for 2012?

Calm.

Not boring calm.

Not even serenity .

But an inner calm.

These words are not like resolutions, often far fetched, often with action plans. They are words pure and simple. Little guides or prompts.

What will prompt you this coming year?

But how will they live in the real world?

2011-12-21T09:25:00.001+11:00

Wednesday in the last week of Advent.

Faith on our Unschooling Catholics list, asks...what are you strewing?

Strewing orthodontist appointments, lists of things I need help with around the house because of my work commitments, and stress.

Got to stop strewing stress.

And smile.

This is what I like about unschooling, though.

It's real life. Stress and all. And we strew learning, real life learning, learning in the affective realm, even when we are not intentionally strewing.

You know that question we all get. "But how will your kids be prepared for the real world?"

This is the real world, dear. They live in my life, and I live in theirs, and the kids see into almost every nook and cranny of my life.

And my life is very Real World.

Sleeping for a week!

2011-12-14T23:01:00.001+11:00

"I'm not so far gone that I can't grasp there has to be more to life than forging pastries at midnight. And tiredness. Deep-sea diver tiredness, voyage to the bottom of fatigue tiredness.." ..from "I Don't Know How She Does It" by Allison Pearson.

I think mothers all know this type of tiredness.

And homeschooling mothers perhaps more so.

And working mothers.

And homeschooling working mothers...

What keeps us going?

Vision.

And prayer.

And a prayerful vision of our role and meaning in life.

To know, love and serve God. In our vocations as women...

"The intrinsic value of woman consists essentially in exceptional receptivity for God's work in the soul, and this value comes to unalloyed development if we abandon ourselves confidently and unresistingly to this work." .. From Woman by St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

I attended a retreat for women today.

And the result? I felt like I had slept for a week. Refreshed.

Me. She who lives in an almost constant state of tiredness.

The Sisters of Life spoke of living the freedom of the feminine heart.

In the words of Sister Mariae Agnus Dei... Receptivity, sensitivity, generosity.

Freedom for and not freedom from.

"If you are what you should be, then you will set the world on fire." St Catherine of Sienna.

Not striving to meet someone else's standards , not forging pies at midnight, not forging anything, really, but living true to our vocation and our dignity.

This is what keeps us going. We give and we receive. We receive and we give.

We love because we are loved.

And we mother as we were mothered, as we wish we were mothered, as Our Lady mothers us.

"Everywhere the need exists for maternal sympathy and help, and thus we are able to recapitulate in the one word motherliness that which we have developed as the characteristic value of woman. Only, the motherliness must be that which does not remain within the narrow circle of blood relations or of personal friends; but in accordance with the model of the Mother of Mercy, it must have its root in universal divine love for all who are there, belabored and burdened."... Woman by St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Ecclesiastical Alzheimer's

2011-12-06T22:37:00.002+11:00

Ecclesiastical Alzheimer's.

You know what I'm talking about.

Those people, yes clergy included, who deride the "Church of the past" .

As if there were two Churches..pre and post Vatican II.

As if there was no discussion by the Holy Father on the hermeneutic of continuity...or do these people even read Church documents?

As if everything was bad in the past...priest not facing the people? Gasp! No participation! People left Holy Mass as soon as they could after Holy Communjon as it was all meaningless to them. To quote some comments recently made in my presence. By those who should know better.

Yeah, right.

It seems these people have suffered a memory loss. Or a comprehension loss. They forget about the strong faith of laity in our past, praying with the priest, all facing Our Lord and not each other. They forget about Catholic sodalities and the active participation of the laity in Holy Mass, in the life of the Church, in bringing Catholic, Christian thought to the world.

They look at the Church through self fashioned glasses..fashioned by their own ideas of church, by historicism and not history itself or education or reading with the mind of the Church.

The cure for ecclesiastical Alzheimer's?

Might I suggest reading...reading about liturgy...starting with The Spirit of the Liturgy by our Holy Father, then Cardinal Ratzinger..

The Christian faith can never be separated from the soil of sacred events, from the choice made by God, who wanted to speak to us, to become man, to die and rise again, in a particular place and at a particular time. “Always” can only come from “once for all”. The Church does not pray in some kind of mythical omnitemporality. She cannot forsake her roots. She recognizes the true utterance of God precisely in the concreteness of its history, in time and place: to these God ties us, and by these we are all tied together. The diachronic aspect, praying with the Fathers and the apostles, is part of what we mean by rite, but it also includes a local aspect, extending from Jerusalem to Antioch, Rome, Alexandria, and Constantinople. Rites are not, therefore, just the products of inculturation, however much they may have incorporated elements from different cultures. They are forms of the apostolic Tradition and of its unfolding in the great places of the Tradition. [The Spirit of the Liturgy, (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000), p. 164]

Ignite!

2011-12-06T21:57:00.001+11:00

After my Jillian (and Jackie!) challenge in November...and my green skirt now looser around my waist...it seemed to me a good idea to continue themed workout challenges for awhile.

This month, I am doing FIRM workouts.

A bit Stepford wife-ish of me.

And this week I am using the FIRM Ignite series...two twenty minute workouts on one DVD. High impact. High intensity. Cardio and weights. And yes I can go heavier than I do on 30 Day Shred in general and Ripped in 30.

They also have more of a fun woo hoo factor...the group feel, the we are in this together no drill sergeant thing.

They are low in ab work..just some standing abs tucked into the very short cool down. So on my less busy days I am adding in abs. Or doing longer FIRMs on those days...

And why not check out Jez's FIRM Challenge blog?

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas

2011-11-27T22:42:00.000+11:00

"Everybody in the Austin family is excited on the first day of December because every day for twenty-four days they will do something special to prepare for the twenty-fifth day, Christmas Day, the most joyful day in the whole year."

And so begins The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L'engle.

I read an old copy of this book as child ( it was published in 1964) and the memories of Mother and her Advent preparations, her Advent activities, stayed with me.

When I became a mother myself, I had a vision for Advent already in mind. Preparing as a family for Christmas. Making and pulling out an Advent calendar. Making cookies. Assembling a crèche or nativity scene. Crafts. Cooking. Carols. Books. Music.

And prayers and masses and movies, in a modern Catholic family twist.

There is a danger, however, that Advent can become yet another time of busy-ness. Of being task oriented. Of endless to do lists.

"Advent, John could tell you, is the name for the four weeks of preparation and thought that lead up to Christmas day."

Preparation and thought. Not necessarily frantic activity and compulsion to do everything that Mrs Austin, Mother in the book, does.

"The kitchen is a big wandery room that turns corners and as kinds of unexpected nooks and crannies. In the dining room end a fire is crackling merrily, and the smell of applewood mingles with the smell of pancakes and maple syrup, and hot chocolate with marshmallows."

In our current house, our kitchen opens onto our dining area, it is light and symmetrical. The teens woke this morning to freshly made pikelets, tea in my variety of cute and fanciful teapots and our basket of Advent books. We lit the first candle in the Advent wreath.

So, yes, I do the Mrs Austin-ish Advent things. Well, some of them. Well, my own version.

But ultimately I know that Advent preparation and thought and prayer should be interior as well as exterior...Holy Mass, the Novena for the Immaculate Conception, the sacrament of penance, the rosary.

Being faithful.

Even if we don't do all the Advent activities, the crafts, the cooking, the books...

We prepare and think and pray.

We find that star, the Light of Christ, in our faithfulness . In His Love.

"One star is brighter and more sparkling than any of the others. 'The Christmas star,' Vicky whispers. Its light seems to shine right down into her heart."

Tradition

2011-11-19T11:39:00.000+11:00

"Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit...And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching." Catechism of the Catholic Church 81.

"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place." Pope Benedict XVI, Letter to the Bishops that accompanied the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum

This is an example of our understanding, as Catholics, of Tradition.

Now contrast this with a parish reflection on the parable of the employer, the three servants, the talents. " This (parable) is a criticism of religious tradition. ...In our Church today, there are people who do not want to change anything, who want to go back to the old way of doing things. The want to bury the Spirit of God in the napkin of Tradition."

Mm. I don't think that our Holy Father would agree. We are to hold sacred that which earlier generations held as sacred. This is not a refusal to change at whim but an obedience to the Church, who has authority to change discipline but who has also respect for our heritage.

We do not bury talents in Tradition..we follow the Church, we respect what has gone before us, we build our talents, our faith, in obedience to Church teaching. Not in obedience to a subjective spirit of the law. An obedience to to the Church, to Tradition, and with a prayerful respect of those little traditions, too.

What do unschoolers do?

2011-11-17T21:32:00.000+11:00

We have lived in very small houses and still live in suburbia.

What do we do with our days? What did we do when all the sons were young?

Well.... We have always done a lot of park visits, library visits, putting posters in libraries and notes in homeschool newsletters for other homeschoolers to meet us at these visits.

We have done and still do regular ice skating arena sessions with other homeschoolers and lunch at the park or even Macdonalds together ( free rein on the equipment!).

Cleaning up every few hours hasn't been a bad thing for us. We have just put some things aside or in a box to resume after meals ...we still do! Even I have a work basket....or we have used the clean up as a time to change an activity or change direction eg craft in the morning and park visit or DVD or computer in the afternoon.

And asking some friends to join us for the craft or DVD or computer games... Mums chat, littlies make a mess with Lego and toys and biggies enjoy the computer game camaraderie.

I like to question routines... Life doesn't have to be a certain way, we can change things up to suit us.

For example, meals don't have to be eaten at the table.. We often had picnic meals on the patio or on a blanket on the floor and we could sit together or read a story there.

Or take it to the park.

Or spread the tablecloths on the floor and watch a movie together while eating.

We can have breakfast for dinner .

We can start our day with art as we did one season .

Or start our day with a walk around our suburbs or a walk to the shops or to the park, as we did many times.

We can go to the library and get an armload of books and play at the park on the way and visit new shops and come home and chill out with books and listen to music CDs.

We can go to the video store and come back with a pile of DVDs and games.

We have joined toy libraries and brought home new toys and games.

We have gone to op shops (charity shops and secondhand shops) and brought home interesting cheap stuff to look at and play with and take apart. And cleaned it up in the next peg of cleaning.. Or said hang it, leave the mess and get some pizza for dinner!

We have rearranged furniture and made rooms look different. I love this. It gives a different feel to a room and especially to a small house!

We have done museums and art galleries very often, again always followed by a play in the park and with or without others .

A beach trip and walk even in winter.

A nature walk in our suburbs and collect finds or take a million photos .

Set up a container garden.. We currently have a mini lemon tree and a mini mandarin tree in pots that we planted two years ago in those same pots in our last house. These bore fruit this year!

We have always done and still do a lot of cooking ( and you get to eat the results!).

Cooking and playing with playdough.

Small pets like fish and birds and a cat.

Visit a pet shop .

Get out dress ups.

Buy foam balls for in house volleyball.. Over the sofa! My kids favourite.

One of those indoor small boouncy trampolines were popular here and the boys still love run inside and outside games with nerf guns.

Or take water pistols to the park.

They also liked turning the kitchen table or the sofas into cubbies with blankets and pillows and playing there for hours... Eating there too so no cleanup till getting ready for dinner .

Or if we were doing schoolwork do it in mum and dad'snbedroom.. Leaning against or on the bed together, littlies in and out with toys, lie on the bed together and read. Just last week I and four sons sat and lay on the double bed or balanced on the foot and hung out and chatted.

Go on a bike ride and skateboard ride around the neighborhood.

Go on park crawls and skateboard park crawls.

Visit new shopping centres and new libraries.

Stop to look at landmarks or signs.

Visit historical houses.

Organize these sorts of outings with other homeschoolers.

Visit other parishes and churches. Pop in for a visit and prayer. Read the history.

These are just a few of the things we did and do, living your average unschooling suburban life.

It's a beautiful life...

Unschooling joy?

2011-11-13T13:53:00.000+11:00

Unschooling joy?

Can we unschool and experience joy or contentment, regardless of our circumstances?

"I speak not as it were for want. For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content therewith." Phillipians 4:11

I decided that part of Unschooling for me would be looking for joy at this moment.

In other words, in spite of stressful things in my life, well... as much as possible, I would treat my mothering as the job or vocation that it is.

You know, when you get dressed and go to work outside the home, regardless of what is happening at home, you put on That Bright Face and smile and are cheerful and work hard...Well, that is what I try to remember at home. It's not my kids' fault things may be problematic so regardless I try to set the tone... Smile, do something nice even if I don't feel like it, be willing to give ourselves a break and have fun, say yes more. Go out even just to the park or to a friends house!

Amazingly, when I do this, especially the saying yes more and being with my kids instead of directing them towards schoolwork, then I feel happier and less stressed. Of course, I have moments when I lose it or when I am utterly exhausted and just curl up on the sofa.. But when I look for joy in the little things, when I say yes more, when I hang out with the kids and with my friends, when I put on a smile and some mascara (!), when I make a chocolate church with the kids even though I am tired ( as we did for the dedication of the Lateran Basilica)... Then I just feel happier and love my life in spite of any problems.

I have learned contentment.

I have to say that my prayer life has been of paramount importance. I pray the morning and evening prayers of the Divine Office and I try to get to daily mass and weekly confession. That gives me peace.

"To converse with You, O King of glory, no third person is needed, You are always ready in the Sacrament of the Altar to give audience to all. All who desire You always find You there, and converse with You face to face." St Teresa of Avila

And I do a workout every day, no matter how short, as those endorphins give me a high!!

We have structure in our day and week, too, just not school structure . Most often structure scheduled around homeschool activities and my work. We do better here with less clutter and more rhythm but that rhythm might be tidy ups pegged to meals and a DVD with dinner most nights for example. Or it could be lie down on the sofa with some Maths and Latin.

These routines pave the way for contentment.

Ultimately, however, contentment and joy are like love...a choice, made in and with His grace.

"The only way to make it in this homeschooling life is to reach for God instead of reaching for happiness. Trying harder to be happy or content will not make you happy and content; trying harder to rest in God and depend upon His grace will. It is a spiritual issue, not a practical one. Contentedness will not come from being more organized, sleeping longer, being a better wife, having a better home, using better materials, having more time to yourself, or whatever you think might help. Contentedness is learned in the process of daily accepting life as God gives it to you, and adjusting your expectations to life’s limitations." Sally Clarkson, Season of A Mother's Heart

I wish unschooling for everyone..

2011-11-07T11:22:00.003+11:00

We recently had a discussion on our Unschooling Catholics email list...on that ubiquitious statement, oh so familiar to all homeschoolers with an unschooling bent...Unschooling sounds great but *I* could never do it.

Maybe the speaker couldn't. Or shouldn't.

Or maybe they should and could...if they are willing to step out of their box.

I'm on my seventh teenage unschooler here.. And my thought and experience is that unschooling works with relationship and time.

Time because a child who does not pick up a book at age eight can become a a teen studying liberal arts at university and reading and enjoying philosophy and theology... And yes, I am describing one of my sons! I would strew books that he would never pick up unless they were non fiction full-of-pictures DK and Usborne books. However, we kept reading aloud and listening to books on CD and watching movie versions of books and letting him follow his interests... Which when he was young was all about the outdoors and activity. So I think Unschooling works best over time.

Time because it takes awhile for "no strings attached" strewing to take... By no strings I mean that I really don't mind if no one takes up my strewing but instead strews their own stuff. And with expectations off, my sons have been more likely to explore new ideas and activities and books.

Relationship because that has been the way Unschooling works in our house. It has enhanced our relationships because we spent time together not doing school but reading aloud, watching movies, drawing, cooking, going to parks and outings and talking. It's this quantity time that is sometimes missing when mums and kids are rushing to do school and then to homeschool activities. And yet this quantity time has been the biggest aid to our learning... so one son, who used to make a big fuss about any sort of formal work when young is the one who is now at university, writing essays and talking to me about chastity and celibacy and how he doesn't think celibacy would be so hard as your mind, his mind, is on other things.. At the moment Cicero. (!) Now, he was the one who you could have said would not be a poster child for Unschooling, would spend oodles of time on computer games and make a big fuss about chores and really did spend a year or two around age sixteen or so just playing games and hanging out ( and doing chores and serving at mass and helping in the parish).

Or let me give an example of another son ( did I mention I have seven sons...thus many examples!) who was also a non writer and often a non reader. But who grew, however, into reading Shakespeare as a teen, who has a degree and now works in politics, works hard, long hours and yet still finds time to go to mass or confession on weekdays as well.

Are they perfect? No.

Were they the perfect poster unschooler kids? No.

Were we the perfect unschooler poster family? No, not with our problems, financial problems, moving many many times, mum's health problems and miscarriages, unemployment, extended family crises, months where we did nothing but chores and watch movies and read and cook and eat. And I went through stages of let's try this ( CM or classical or curriculum) but we always came back to just living and learning.

Where am I going with this?

That I would wish Unschooling for everyone.

That blossoming of self and interests and relationships.

Unschooling tweaked to suit each family but Unschooling where the child and family are more important than is he reading, is he doing maths, can he meet these outcomes? Ad infinitum.

In my experience, the unschooled children can meet outcomes, over time, with a good relationship ( "darling , for uni you will need more maths and writing so how about we try x and y... "...Easily suggested and more likely to be taken up when relationship in place) and with tweaking to suit each child and family.

Unschooling has brought me to my knees, to my Faith, to the sacraments , many many times... Heck, I became a Catholic! Me! It's that trust in Our Lord, in the Holy Spirit's workings in my life and in the life of my kids, in the graces of the sacraments.

So my answer to is Unschooling for everyone is.. It's up to the parent!

Are you prepared to read more, pray more, live with your kids, daily give more of yourself, move out of your comfort zone, educate yourself, give it a good long try, no strings attached!?

For Unschooling requires effort as the vocation of mothering requires effort .. Effort and prayer... It's just that the effort is spent in time with the child and family and not with curriculum and programmes.

And the rewards are manifold.

Unschooling choice

2011-10-29T23:04:00.000+11:00

People wonder what unschooled teens will choose to do, to read, if their time is not structured, if they are not required to "do school".
Will they choose unlimited video games and easy read books and TV?
They may do.
Or like Anthony this week, they may choose to read..and read widely...and talk about reading.
In Anthony's (self directed, self chosen) reading pile this week....

Dante's Divine Comedy (Hell) and Shakespeare's Coriolanus.

Scott O'Dell"s historical novel The King's Fifth and a French Reader.

The education of an autodidact.
With mum and brothers and friends around, for discussion.
That quantity time.

Here comes November!

2011-10-29T22:14:00.001+11:00

As the October Challenge draws to a close, I have planned and begun my November Challenge. By default.

Jillian Michaels.

Namely, Ripped in 30 and 30 Day Shred. Chosen because the mix of intervals, of cardio and strength and abs usually give me good results in a short amount of time. Healthwise.

Often tough but effective and good to push one self without the exhaustion of hour long pushing.

Those of you who workout will understand.

And I am planning on revisiting some old favourites for the eating part of the challenge.. Old favorite books that is. Secrets of a Former Fat Girl, The Do-able Diet, The Lazy Girl's Guide to Dieting, Calorie Queens.

What is the common thread in these books? All written by women who used to be overweight. That been there done that thing.

"You don't have to be perfect, you just have to bring it." To quote Jillian from today's workout, workout one of the Ripped in 30 workout DVD.

Good advice!

That October Challenge!

2011-10-22T20:20:00.001+11:00

"I had at last become a true child of the modern world,completely tangled up in petty and useless concerns with myself.." Thomas Merton, in The Seven Storey Mountain.

And so I consider these words as I continue with my October Challenge. I want to be healthier and fitter, and lets face it , look better .... I want it all... Fitness and holiness, without concern for self.

Can the two mesh together?

And is this a dilemma of the modern age?

It has cast a new slant on my October Challenge.

As Merton before me, I could be in danger of .."worrying about a lot of imaginary rules of health, standards of food value...."

My October Challenge is attempting to eat with some balance...not often achieved but those days that I do are glorious. And I note that these days are more often weekends, days that are busy and full but without my crazy work schedules.

My fitness has been that walking/jogging rotation...and I am loving it! I am singing, I am walking and jogging and dancing and I am enjoying not feeling so worn out after a workout...you know, when I am often busy and sleep deprived, adding a push myself to my limits workout can be fun..but exhausting. Walking and jogging every day, with a little bit of strength training, makes me feel less tired right now...and it's great to do cardio every day...great fun and good for health and body...and mind ( those prayers while working out). And I can push myself and feel worked out, nicely tired...not I-can't-make-it-up-the-stairs tired.

One more week of the October Challenge to go!

Duty and Love

2011-10-19T15:02:00.004+11:00

"Falling in love while I was still a nun complicated things and helped me think about myself in a different way" Mary Johnson, in "An Unquenchable Thirst."

Mary Johnson describes her life as a nun...and her falling in love with someone other than God...and her surprise at this. And yes, this "falling in love" was one of the reasons she left her religious order.

Yet we shouldn't be surprised by falling in love. If we love God, when we feel His Love for us, then we love even more..we love Him more and our capacity for love of others is heightened.

This is not a romantic love but a selfless love.

Fr James Martin, in his book of his priestly vocation, In Good Company, writes of celibacy and chastity...As a Jesuit, he discusses his vows of chastity, poverty, obedience and says " ...even chastity does not preclude one from falling into love..Falling in love and being in love are both gifts from God. Its a question of what you do....A chaste person tries, like Jesus did, to love as many people as possible."

I think the same could be said of those of us in the vocation of marriage...we love our spouses, we love our children and we also love others. First we are loved by God, then we love others.

It has taken that awhile to dawn on me...

Where am I going with this?

A son and I discussed love and duty. How the two are intertwined. We love . Sometimes we act solely out of Love. Sometimes we act because we feel loved, and we feel His Love. And sometimes we act out of duty.

We act regardless of falling in or falling out of love.

As Fr Martin says...it's a question of what we do.

"Our Lord has created persons for all states in life, and in all of them we see people who who achieved sanctity by fulfilling their obligations well." St Anthony Mary Claret

There hasn't been a lot of talk lately about duty..we talk instead of love, of doing things out of love.

I find the two go hand in hand..we live and act out of love and out of duty.

Duty need not be negative..it can be a result of love, it can lead to love or to enhancing love.

Love and duty keep our lives in order..I love and I do what I ought.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us of this positive bent...the 'commandment is expressed in positive terms of duties to be fulfilled.' (2198)

Positive duties.

A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings

2011-10-16T10:56:00.000+11:00

“Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.” ~Jane Austen

That's the danger, folks. That we who like-to-do-a-lot can just do-too-much and miss out on all the important things..family, prayer..sleep.

Which is one reason I unschool. We don't need another set list of To Dos in our life. We need to connect more, to form relationships with each other, with books, with ideas, with nature, with the world. with self, with God.

"Education is the Science of Relations'; that is, a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––
"Those first-born affinities
That fit our new existence to existing things." Charlotte Mason

So how do we do this? We have daily, work-at-home rhythms and I am pondering being less busy....

"But how can you stop being busy? It’s a simple change of mindset: you say, I’m not going to be busy anymore. Even if you have little control over your schedule, you can decide that you’ll slow down, and pick the important things to work on, and if necessary, talk to your boss about doing this. If you control your schedule, you can drop all the busywork, and just pick the high-impact tasks. It might seem impossible, but once you decide to put an End to Busy, you have taken the biggest step."

What is our weekly, work at home, unschooling rhythm? Flip over to the Unschooling Catholics blog and read my post there..

"And that is how the weeks go...way too fast...but we work on flow...on doing...and on being...Like the blue willow tea set...cups in a row, beauty, but not perfect...little imperfections...like those little imperfections in our days, our order, our rhythms ...that make the unschooling week"

Dead people as friends...St Teresa of Avila

2011-10-16T09:28:00.000+11:00

"The highest perfection consists not in interior favours or in great rapture, but in bringing of our wills so closely into conformity with the will of God that as soon as we realize that He wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might."

St Teresa is one of my "mentor" saints. I read her writings, I look to her for inspiration.

She is my friend.

Yes, dead people as friends...read my post here.

I think St Teresa may be horrified at parts of who I am, a modern techi-devoted, Singstar and workout devoted, working and homeschooling, wife and mother...but I like to think we would share the same sense of humour, sense of duty, love for our Faith, love for God.

And so we cooked a Spanish flavoured dinner for St Teresa's feast day, October 12. I shared the recipes in my regular food- for -the -liturgical -year "column" on the Australian Catholic Families blog.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote that St Teresa had a " a profound and articulate spirituality" and reminds us to emulate St Teresa, in seeking God's friendship every day, in prayer...for time spent in prayer is not time wasted. ( Blog of the MI Australia).

My Invisible Unschooling

2011-10-09T07:55:00.003+11:00

Someone teased me recently about my unschooling. That if Anthony sneezes I would write that in my Homeschool log as Health.

I laughed. It may be a tiny bit true.

Yet my sons, yet Anthony, is educated and has a well rounded education, a liberal arts education, not in spite of having me as a mother and not in spite of all the things I don't do, but because of all that I do.

All those invisible things I do, things that seem effortless and seamless but are done, every day, day in, day out, with a direct philosophy in mind.

A philosophy of unschooling, of children being natural leathers, of emphasizing the tools of learning, of creating a rich learning environment at home and elsewhere, of modelling, of discussion, of strewing, of Love.

The author also introduces the concept of unschooling not as an ideology — some fixed system against which to measure reality — but rather as a habit of observing children carefully and being willing to adapt our approach in light of our observations. In Suzie’s words, “Unschooling makes much more sense when we think of it as a suggestion rather than a mandate. Be with the children. Really look at them. Enjoy spending time together, talking, investigating, reading, playing.”

At the end of Chapter 2, we find a summary of the principles of unschooling. “Let the child learn by his own initiative, in his own way. The basics are not hard, children want to learn them, and they will ask for help when they need it. Learning is easiest and most effective when it is spontaneous and entered into by desire. Our home life will include necessary tasks, obligations, and duties, but learning does not have to be one of them.”

From a review of the book A Little Way of Homeschooling...you know, that book on Catholic unschooling, the one to which I am a contributor..and a perfect description of what seems to be invisible unschooling.

A Fitness Challenge

2011-10-09T07:53:00.002+11:00

Fat and frumpy. Old and ugly.

You know those things we say to ourselves.

It's that self loathing. And for many women it began in their teen years.

For me, it began in my childhood. But that's a whole other story.

As Ajay Rochester says in her 5 Minute Diet Book, starting from a point of self disgust is not helpful.

Instead, we should begin a new fitness venture from a point of being positive... Affirmations if need be. Self control over negative thoughts. Choosing workouts that make us smile.

Lately I have been doing more walking and jogging workouts.Outside. Or inside... Leslie Sansone being some of these workouts.

Leslie is bubbly, chatty, positive. I can pray while walking or jogging, otherwise mindless workouts. ....Hail Mary... Contemplation instead of mindlessness...

And if I am walking, jogging, doing upper body strength training in my family room, I can ham it up. Act like a dork. Dance. Sing. Who is to see or care?

Leslie has an October walking and jogging challenge beginning on Monday. To overcome these I-hate-me feelings I am taking the challenge. Setting a plan for x number of kilometres.

And looking at my chaotic eating habits... Yes, my life means I tend to be chaotic in eating. As described in Intuitive Eating..." The Chaotic Unconscious Eater often lives an over scheduled life, too busy, too many things to do. The chaotic eating style is haphazard; whatever's available will be grabbed....nutrition and diet are often important to this person...just not at the critical point of the chaos. Chaotic eaters are so busy putting out fires ( in my case doing all that I need to do and working two jobs and homeschooling and trying to eat what's on hand to save money..) they have difficulty recognizing biological hunger until it's fiercely ravenous. Not surprisingly, the Chaotic Eater often goes long periods of time without eating."

Mmm. Me to a tee.

So my October fitness challenge is to hate myself a little bit less ( son Thomas always says to me, Mum you are worse than my friends, girls my age, about hating your looks and body! ...yep, that's me..), to walk and jog perhaps with Leslie, to structure eating and be more mindful.

I'll report back regularly!

And .....want to join me?

What are we cooking today, Mum?

2011-10-04T08:03:00.003+11:00

We cook our way through the liturgical year.

I change our dining table centerpiece to reflect the liturgical year.

This week, we have had a statue of St Michael the archangel on the dining table. Our saints book open for the day. The Dhouay Rheims Bible for St Jerome. The Story of a Soul for St Therese of Lisieux. Today a statue of St Francis.

And our ongoing feature for this month, the month of the Holy Rosary, is a statue of Our Lady, some rosary beads and a missal open to the indulgenced prayer to St Joseph for the month of October.

This week, we have made Devil's Food Cake for the Archangels, quiche for St Vincent de Paul, my grandmother's toffee for St Jerome, a strawberries and cream cake for both St Therese and for the guardian angles...and today for St Framcis?

Well, check out my post on the ACF blog.... Cooking for the Feast of St Francis.

Why Ms Keneally is wrong...Love and Responsibility

2011-09-27T10:04:00.007+10:00

Kristina Keneally, former premier of New South Wales, a self professing Catholic politician, writes a piece on Why I Support Gay Marriages.

Now, I could refute her article on many terms...Church teaching, dissidence, informed conscience, sacramentality of marriage, importance of marriage laws for the protection of women and of children, fallacious and emotive argument ....I will, however, restrict myself, to one of the many inaccuracies contained in her argument.

"....homosexual acts are preferable to living a life where one can never give expression to one's sexuality."

Oh dear. Herein lies the inaccuracy. That expression of sexuality relies solely on the sexual act itself.

This is a purely a utilitarian point of view of sexuality.

The sexual urge...is a natural drive born in all human beings, a

vector of aspiration along which their whole existence develops

e for enjoyment this inner life of the person

and perfects itself from within... If...the sexual urge is understood

as...a drive for enjoyment this inner life of the person

is almost totally negated... The sexual urge in man is a fact

which he must...welcome as a source of natural energy. Pope John Paul II,Love and Responsibility

The sexual urge, our sexuality, is not to be used ..for us or for others. It is a gift from God. It is expressed in our love for others, our natural creative energy, our passions...and not only strictly in a physical sense.

I can be chaste and yet still express my sexuality..by my life, my creativity, my

vocation, my love.

Love between persons...must possess a clear-cut objective

purpose... Man’s capacity for love depends on his willingness

consciously to seek a good together with others... From the

desire for the ‘unlimited’ good of another ‘I’ springs the whole

creative drive of true love. Ibid

Man's creativity is often fueled by love. not by requiring a physical sexual union or by a burying of love nor by a lack of expression of sexuality.

If we limit the expression of our sexuality to the physical act of sex, we miss out on the fullness of our expression of humanity, our passions, we deny whole sections of our sexuality and creativity .....simply in order to reduce human sexuality to a mere physical act.

Even if we never experience the physical act of sexuality, we still experience our sexuality, we still express it, in our love and actions, for the greater good.

The dignity of the person demands control of concupiscence. If

the person does not exercise such control it...allows an

inferior...part of itself to enjoy freedom of action, and indeed

subjects itself to this lesser self... Control of concupiscence has

as its objective not only the perfection of the person who attempts

to achieve it, but also the realization of love in the world of persons. Ibid

This is the danger of this part of Keneally's argument , that one cannot live a full life without expressing one's sexuality via open acts of sexual union, via changing marriage laws to adapt to a person's desires and not for the good of society. Her statement reduces sexual orientation and sexuality to one element alone..the physical sense..and this denies the ultimate good of individuals and of society. This denies love itself. Love which means thinking of another, not having to express sexuality on our own terms, not having to form society to fit my desires, my carnal desires, my concupiscence.

Only the chaste..are capable of true love...

Chastity frees their association...from

that tendency to use a person which

is...incompatible with ‘loving kindness’...

The essence of chastity

consists in quickness to affirm the

value of the person in every situation...

Chastity...does involve a certain

humility of the body. Ibid

We can express our sexuality in our chastity, in affirming the value of ourselves and of others.

Ms Keneally, with her degree in theology, needs to read Love and Responsibility. And the Catechism of the Catholic Church. With logic and reasoning. And prayer and love.

2011-09-20T10:22:00.003+10:00

I'm a list maker.

I can't help myself.

Have a problem? Make a list of steps to take to fix up the problem...or at least making it more livable.

Many things to do? Write out that To Do list.

Money problems? Relationship hassles? Diet thoughts? List those solutions.....

Talking about want tos and want to dos with the kids? Grab that paper and pen, that IPad, and list.

Good books? Movies we want to watch? Places we want to visit? List, list, list.

Years ago, I even wrote a list of How To Unschool....People First headed the list. Most necessary as I can be task oriented.

As in this article..How To Be A Good Unschooler...

I think this is is the why behind my list making. I want to be Good. Hermione good.

2011-09-18T16:48:00.002+10:00

Transcendent in awe.

One of the feast days this week was that of St John Chrysostom.

Pope Benedict XVI, in 2007, on the anniversary of the saint's death, wrote of St John and the Divine Liturgy.

"St John understood that the Divine Liturgy situated the believer spiritually between his life on earth and the heavenly reality which was promised to him by the Lord.....

These sacred rites, says St John, ?are not only marvelous to behold, but transcendent in awe. There stands the priest ... bringing down the Holy Spirit, and he prays at length ... that grace descending on the sacrifice may thereby enlighten the minds of all and render them more resplendent than silver purified by fire.""

Transcendent. Between heaven and earth. Out of the ordinary experience. Exceptional.

Not lacklustre liturgy.

Not banal trite catechism for children and adults.

But a chance to bridge that gap between the ordinary and the sacred.

To enlighten minds and souls.

In liturgy. And in our teaching.

You could have heard a pin drop in catechism class this week when we talked about the Mass, when we looked at sacred vessels, at crystal cruets, at polished bells. A ripple of a sigh, of awe, at the beauty ...not for the ordinary but for the special, for the celebration of mass, for preparing to receive Jesus in the Eucharist.

The need for sacred, for ritual, for beauty, for intellect, ideas out of the ordinary (transubstantiation,...the children rolled the words on their tongues, nodded as we spoke of the Body and of the Blood).. These needs were all fed, not by simplistic, euphemistic terms, not by garish drawings but by Truth and Beauty.

We build our Catholic identity, in ourselves and in the children, through sacred liturgy and an understanding of the liturgy. All senses are filled. Heart, mind, body, soul. We build a relationship with Our Lord...and this is shared with others. In true education. In true evangelization . In true ecumenism. In true social justice.

Emanating from that awe at transcendence.

Sittin' in the sun, unschooling

2011-09-13T14:32:00.001+10:00

As I sit in the sun on the front verandah, with youngest son Anthony, drinking tea, having a late lunch, discussing punk rock, Fr Laux's Catholic Apologetics. (I'm really liking this book, says Anthony) and Thoreau, my paperwork by my side, The Help waiting on kindle, an interlude before I go to work, I think.... I am so glad that we have unschooled.

It's that memory snapshot.

Homeschooling Resource Meme

2011-09-10T20:33:00.004+10:00

I have been tagged by Leanne.

1.One homeschool book you have enjoyed.... From my earlier Homeschooling years...I used to re-read these regularly...Teach Your Own by John Holt ( one of the first Homeschool books I ever read), Better Than School by Nancy Wallace, For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macauley, The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond and Dorothy Moore (originally published as something like Avoiding Homeschool Burnout.)...I do know thats more than one...

2. One book/ resource I wouldn’t be without.....The Internet. Totally. How did I Homeschool before the Internet? And the library.

3. One resource you wish you never purchased....oh my gosh, probably so many! But one that stands out is the Apologia Science Chemistry book. Dry as dust and none of us, yes even me, could get into it. Not even as a reference or supplement.

4. One resource you enjoyed last year....the Think blog. Most weeks we tried the Science/Thinking skills activites and problems. For awhile anyway. Before life got too busy with other things. It was fun! And I took photos or blogged as documentation.

5. One resource you will be using next year. ...this year? Sandra Dodd's Big Book of Unschooling. I downloaded it onto iBooks and I think it will be good for me, down to my last unschool school aged son, to revisit some unschooling ideas and to talk about them with Anthony and with others. Mum's reading inevitably affects our Homeschooling...in this house, anyway!

6. One resource you would like to purchase.... I don't know if there is one! Let me think...probably a learn to speak Portuguese resource, for Anthony and Thomas, in preparation for WYD 2013 in Rio Di Janeiro.

7. One resource you wish existed.... Not much really, we live and learn and use whatever we find...but maybe, when the boys were younger, a crystal ball to let me know that our relaxed Homeschooling, our unschooling, Would Work! (It has!)

8. One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading... I used to love the Sonlight catalogue, for book suggestions, though I haven't read it for several years now. I have also loved the FUN books website.

9. One homeschool website you use regularly...none really (blushes). I read blogs on an ad hoc basis, I read our Unschooling Catholics email list, I sometimes read the Unschooling Basics email list, I used to love the old Unschooling dotcom forum and I used to read the 4 Real Learning forum more, when I had more time....

10. Tag other homeschoolers....Lisa, Faith, Cay

Unschooling quotes..

2011-09-08T14:15:00.002+10:00

From yesterday, a very busy day of work and work meetings..."I am so glad I unschool, I wouldn't have time to homeschool..."

Ouch!

Which is not strictly true, unschooling does take time but a very different sort of time. Or management. Or supervision. As in yesterday, when I was out at work and work meeting, unschooling didn't mean leaving Anthony to his own devices. Instead, it meant me encouraging him to go to university with his brothers, take his maths and Physics to work on, hang out at the library and with his brothers and their friends...

From today...looking at the clock and knowing it is almost time for us to leave for my Kumon centre..."Where did the time go??? and no schoolwork!"

At which comment we both laughed..because Anthony has spent time reading his book, the book borrowed from the university library yesterday. "The Greatness That Was Babylon."

Unschooling quotes, out of context, can be misleading....

2011-09-06T11:23:00.001+10:00

Today

Tired. Bone tired. "Making your way upstairs is too hard" tired.

Prayer, I know some people who need prayer today.

Crunch workout. Belly Butt and Thighs Bootcamp. Bright happy clothes at 6 am help.

Saving moments of grace come in hugs and conversation with some young children at work. "Did you see my Fiji stuff? You can hear the sea in this shell."

In a cup of tea and a shared chocolate bar with Anthony, at the breakfast bar, paying bills, paperwork.

And hanging out at the library with Anthony. Him for research. Me for Kumon work and a Kumon consult.

Inadvertently we dress alike. Blue jeans, purple shirt, black jackets, black converse.

Twins. Arnie Schwartznegger and Danny De Vito.

What interest will Anthony find, for his next unschooling rabbit trail?

Yesterday was writing on the immortality of the soul. A quote from his writing...."We can easily draw the following conclusion: that there is within us a power which we call intellect or reason; a thinking or rational substance which we call the soul. A thinking substance must be a simple spiritual substance. A simple spiritual substance is independent of matter. What is independent of matter can exist apart from matter."

Today? Enjoying the library. The sun through the many glass windows. The sofas and cushions.

And work.

And errands.

And perhaps some reading.

Before more work.

And prayer.

Finding God in all things.

Contemplation in action.

Describing Ignatian spirituality ( James Martin's The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything, some of my Kindle reading)

Yet describing the life of a wife and mother...perpetual action and motion , sprinkled with prayer and contemplation.

"The road is our home."

( Jeronimo Nadal, Jesuit, early companion of St Ignatius of Loyola, )

Vocation

2011-09-04T16:18:00.001+10:00

"When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "The Cost of Discipleship."

There are different kinds of dying.

This is, however, the essence of discipleship. And often the essence of our vocations.

It's not always easy to live out our vocations , be they to marriage, parenthood, religious life, priesthood...

But we do it. We live, we follow Christ, and sometimes we die a little bit inside.

Yet we are never alone. We have His graces.

We follow Him, we die and out of what feels like the ashes of our vocation, is borne a strength, a faith.

This is the cost of discipleship.

And the joy.

A mother's heart

2011-08-31T19:58:00.002+10:00

A mother teaches. A mother guides. A mother laughs. A mother shares. A mother loves. A mother spends time.

A mother cares . Keeps her children close. And a mother lets go.

When I became a Catholic, I struggled to understand devotion to Our Lady, and to the Rosary.

But time spent praying the rosary, trying to understand the rosary and meditation, pondering each mystery , brought me towards Our Mother. I began to understand motherhood in the light of Our Lady. And her life.

Mary spent her life in motherhood. Motherhood as a vocation. Motherhood as a life.

And her motherhood is universal. She mothers us all.

The more years I mother, mother children and young adults of varying stages, caring for my children and for others, the more I understand that love means letting go. Sometimes even loving from a distance.

I was often, am often, like little Lovejoy in Rumer Godden's " An Episode of Sparrows".....

"'Hail Mary,' prayed Lovejoy between her teeth, 'Mary, make me cocky and independent.'"

Hail Mary, I sometimes pray silently, make me tough, make me strong.

And Mary takes my prayers, just as she took Lovejoy's prayers and she prays to her Son. And just like Lovejoy becomes vulnerable and has to accept care and love, though fiercely independent, so I become vulnerable and less knowing, in love.

I love and let go. I am both strong and weak, tough and soft.

With Mary as my role model, as my guide, my help, my intercessor.

Life with the......

2011-08-19T22:56:00.001+10:00

A day in the life of... An answer to those who asked how Unschooling looks for families with teens.

5.44 am Mobile phone alarm beeps. I jump out of bed to grab the phone and switch off the alarm because I can't bear the noise and don't want it to wake the family. Then, because it's cold and wet, and because I went to bed at midnight doing work for Kumon, I take my phone back to bed with me for ten minutes. I say a few Hail Marys.

6.05 am Doing a Taebo workout in my room. Time for a half hour workout today... Total Body Blast, kickboxing and light weights. Go Billy Blanks!

6.40 am Getting dressed for work at OOSH. I lay my uniform and jeans and Converse out the night
before so I don't have to think in the morning. Because I took those ten minutes in bed there is no time now to wash and dry my hair so I put it in pigtails.

6.50 am Leave for work... Running a bit late.

7.00-9.30 am Work as a co-ordinator at an out of school hours care centre. Set up dominoes and tristar games and pet portraits, chat to children and parents and staff, do paperwork, plan afternoon activities.

While at home, builders arrive to fix the termite damage in our rental home. Jonathon and Alexander in Madrid for WYD (lucky things!) and Greg is home for a week before going to the US for postulancy and novitiate. So Greg, Anthony, Thomas get up, workout, tidy, talk, pray, breakfast, computer, errands

9.40 am Home from work, talk to a Kumon parent on the phone, say hi to builders and sons, check email on my phone. Anthony makes a pot of tea and we try to find a quiet builder free area to talk. Can Anthony's friend come over? Will Greg proofread Anny's report on Sir Robert Menzies? We all talk, look up movies online, go on Facebook, Thomas writes a blogpost.Anthony puts on a load of laundry and we laugh at how much less washing we have with two away.

About that report. A couple of weeks back it came to me that we were inadvertently studying Australian history this year ( see my post on Inadvertent Homeschooling). With trips and outings and books that came our way. So I suggested to Anthony that he write a report on a famous person in Australian history.. And this he finished yesterday.

About that blog post. A long discussion in Melbourne , about writing and commitment and self discipline and a friend's blog, encouraged
Thomas' blog, Life as a student.

10.10 I go to finally wash that hair, reading a bit of Merton's Seven Storey Mountain ( that modern spiritual classic) and the beginning of Run Your Butt Off (an introduction to running as a workout and sport) on the way. Anthony and Greg play a video game with Anthony's friend , David. Then David and Anthony play some piano.

10,55 Say goodbye to the builders... They should be finished this weekend and painters in next week! Yay! Kids drop me off to my eye specialist appointment and they head off to the shopping mall. In the waiting room I start to blog, watch the news, read parts of the aforementioned books. This is my rest! Or at least how I look at it... Not boring waiting time!

I look at my To Do list... Is there anything I can do while in the waiting room? I pray the prayer on the holy card I use as a bookmark.

I download some songs on ITunes and field another call from a Kumon parent. While the boys visit the shops and library.

Does it seem like I am filling in time??

I pray for the pilgrims in Madrid.. That plenary indulgence you know!

1.20 pm Finally texting Greg to pick me up... Waited two hours for a six minute consult!

1.49 At the food court for lunch. Lentil beetroot fetta salad! Anthony and his friend play with Bucky Balls, beads with which they make creations. Greg goes to the orthodontist and Thomas to work as an assistant at a nearby Kumon centre. I talk, text, catch up on email. With a skim chai latte!

2.53 pm Rushing to work, late again. Anthony with his friend David at home, playing games and music and reading. Greg will take Anthony to piano lessons at 5pm while I plan indoor activities for the kids at OOSH on this rainy, windy day.

6.05 Walking in the rain, waiting for my lift home from work. Then we leave a car for Thomas at his work, so he can drive to youth group in our parish after work. Home to say hi to dh, home early from work interstate in Canberra. Anthony tells me about music lessons. Builders have finished and gone! I dry my hair and we go to mass in our parish and Anthony then to meet Thomas at youth group.

We talk about St Louis of Anjou, the first Franciscan bishop. And hear from our pilgrims in Spain... It's amazing!

I get to pray the Morning and Evening prayers of the Office before and after mass ( yay! But hangs head in shame re catch up). Then home to pick up dh ... Just we three, Gerry, Greg and I for dinner, some time to chat before Greg goes away.

Where shall we eat?

8.44 At a local Thai restaurant. Thomas and Anny still at youth group. Hearing all about WYD from pilgrims and about studies in the US from Greg.

9.48 Meet T and A at McDonalds for coffee and chat about youth group. Still cold. Pouring rain.

Discuss tomorrow's plans.

Discuss items in the newspaper.

And talk about writing. And blogs. And personal culpability. And mental health problems.

10.48 pm Home . Very , very cold. Anthony does more laundry. I tidy up. We pray and get ready for bed. I make a To Do list for tomorrow, adding the many things I didn't do today.

An early night.. We were going to watch an episode of Numbers (Maths and crime!) but we are oh so tired after a busy week... So bed and reading for us all ( and blogging for me!)

It's Strewsday!

2011-08-17T14:28:00.002+10:00

And so.. Why not visit theUnschooling Catholics blog?

And do some strewing yourself.....strewing conversation, as I talk about in the post above.

Love and commitment

2011-08-16T22:34:00.000+10:00

Love and commitment

You know, when you read those How To Keep Your Marriage Alive books, the one thing they tell you to do is communicate.

You know, when you read those How To Keep Your Teenager Close books, the one thing they tell you to do is communicate.

But.. Well... sometimes communication just doesn't cut it.

Sometimes you don't even like each other that much.. At the moment. And the thought of communicating , of working on the relationship, is almost like pulling teeth.

Actually, you would rather have your teeth pulled than work on this together.

And, you know, that's okay.

Because, contrary to the advice in the popular self books, communication is not the most important tool in the relationship box.

Commitment is the most important tool.

Serious commitment.

Seriously.

It's when we make a commitment to a relationship, be it marriage, parenting, that special friend, it's at the moment of commitment that we hold in our hands the most effective tool for the development of the relationship.

For love is commitment.

We commit to that relationship .. Regardless. There will be problems, there will be times when you annoy or hurt each other, when you feel all is lost, when you want the other to leave or the teen to grow up and away or the friend not to call or text.

In these times, it is your commitment to the relationship that makes a difference.

Commitment makes a difference to you. Because you don't give up on the relationship. Even when you want to.

And commitment makes a big difference to the other. The spouse, the teen, the friend. That know , deep inside, even when they don't consciously recall it, even when all seems lost, they know that, in spite of hard and horrible times, there will be good times and that you will be there for them . Always.

"The future starts today, not tomorrow."
— Blessed John Paul II

It does. It starts today with relationships built on commitment.

A poverty of culture

2011-08-13T18:04:00.003+10:00

A poverty of culture.

I'm quoting British PM David Cameron here.

His phrase, in reference to the British riots and to a loss of a sense of right and wrong, of values, has been our driving-in-the-car discussion.

Because, sadly, I see this poverty of culture with many children. They are materially comfortable but culturally, aesthetically, spiritually poor.

Their dreams have been reduced to good grades, being good at sport, looking cool, getting the latest technology, reality TV and one day having a good job and a nice house.

And they are starved. They have a vacuum within, a vacuum they try to fill with things, with activities, with fun, with friends.

Our culture has let them down. We have sunk, many times, to the lowest common denominator in our entertainment, in our books, our television watching, to whet our baser appetites for more. As in that Merton quote.

We have dumbed down our curriculum. Made it politically correct. Taking away all the study of beauty, of art or of poetry, any study of art and poetry for their own right, to reduce it to study for outcomes. Be introduced to genre. Learn to write an exposition. Learn an art
technique, study the theme of revolution in poetry...not poetry for enjoyment. Watch what amounts to political propaganda for religion. And
do all this to achieve the outcome, to fit our current ideologies , not to see the beauty of the written word or of the artwork. Not for enjoyment. But for utilitarian purposes.

The same could be be said of the Christian world or of the Church. In an effort to be relevant, the Church has lost its sense of the sacred in many places and in some liturgies. Christian art and Christian music is often banal and pop culture driven. The children , the young people
don't come to church, to worship, in an atmosphere that inspires awe. They come to be entertained, to see friends, because they should .
And when that fails they often leave. They don't see anything in Church that the world can't offer.

And don't give me the old tired statement that children nowadays aren't interested in the sacred, in beauty, in being brought out of themselves and their utilitarian media and consumer driven culture.

I work with kids. And when, for example, instead of self-centred morning news at OOSH, I introduce discussion on a staff member's trip tp World Youth Day and Spain, are the children bored? To the contrary. They tell me what they know of Spain, they ask questions, we discuss
the Spanish culture.

Or they look at the artwork on my IPad when I take it in for use on "lazy day". Who's that? Mary. A painting by Raphael. Who's he? An artist.
And they are interested. They look at the colours, at other paintings.

And the children in catechism class show a similar interest and thirst. Not for the curriculum of "niceness" but for something that inspires. We talk about WYD, we look up Spain on the map, we discuss Spanish food and icons. I talk about St Ignatius of Loyola and St Mary of the Cross, recent feast days, and the boys' eyes light up when they hear about St Ignatius being a soldier. They ask questions about what he
read to make him want to be a priest, about why Jesuits often had to smuggle into England to say mass during the Reformation and post-
Reformation, they ask about living a life for something and not giving up. "Oh, like when you told us fortitude! " Yes, when we talked about
the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Wow, they remember. They understand. They have a thirst for real knowledge, for visions, for dreams, for the
sacred, for things outside of themselves or out of the ordinary.

After Mass on Sunday night, a mother came to me with her son, I said hello as I teach this little boy in Catechism. She said yes, all he
could do during mass was keep pointing me out, telling his mum the things he had learned in class. Now, I am not saying this because I think it is admirable for children to talk in mass. Or because I want you to think I am the world's best teacher. I am sharing because this incident illustrates my point. That these children can understand beauty and the sacred, can be interested in that which is good and true.

We just have to feed them the right stuff. Give them the beauty. Encourage awe. Give them a sense of the sacred. The truth. The higher
purpose.

We have to create a culture of value. Not a poverty of culture.

Thomas Merton was converted to a life for God in part by the beauty of sacred art. Surely our children deserve the same opportunity for conversion?

Ruby Strewsday

2011-08-12T18:06:00.002+10:00

Strewsday

Faith is hosting a regular Tuesday Strewsday. Sharing that with which we have strewn our children's paths.

Okay, I know it's not Tuesday. I know I'm late. It's been that kind of a week.

And because it's been that kind of a week I have been at wit's end, trying to think what exactly it is that I, that we, have strewn this week.

Ummm...

Then it came to me.

I may not have been doing a great deal of visible, intentional strewing for my homeschooler, for the family, but I have been strewing myself. My life.

In my interactions. My discussions. My silences. My actions. My life of attempted consistency, of trying , of striving to be faithful, of going to Mass, praying the Divine Office, sharing the liturgical year, going to work, household chores, workouts, reading, work at home, writing..

In the end, it is who I am and what I do that speak volumes to my children. Especially to young adults and teens . Who look beyond the rhetoric and the public persona to the real mother.

"...the most effective educational method is not the word of instruction but the living example without which all words remain useless. " from "Woman" , page six, Edith Stein (St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)

Why go to adoration?

2011-08-07T20:17:00.002+10:00

Someone asked me why I go to Eucharistic Adoration. And how a seemingly ADD, doing sort of person can sit and kneel, silently, in adoration.

"We live in a society whose whole policy is to excite every nerve in the human body and keep it at the highest pitch of artificial tension, to strain every human desire to the limit and to create as many new desires and synthetic passions as possible, in order to cater to them with the products of our factories and printing presses and movie studios and all the rest." Thomas Merton, Seven Storey Mountain

And yet, when I sit in adoration of Our Lord, in church , I am drawn apart from this tension. I am with God.

So this is my answer.

In Adoration, I am taken out of self, away from desire. I am with God.

A bit of a through-the -Stargate -experience, for those fans of the science fiction television series Stargate. For I am out of my world, my noisy busy world, and I feel alone with God. Sometimes praying. Sometimes just being. Sometimes laying down all my thoughts and prayers and concerns for others, for this busy world .

"To visit the Blessed Sacrament is . . . a proof of gratitude, an expression of love, and a duty of adoration toward Christ our Lord." (CCC 1418)

Inadvertent Homeschooling

2011-08-04T23:22:00.000+10:00

Inadvertent Homeschooling

Inadvertent. Not resulting from deliberate planning.

There are times when our Homeschooling looks almost unintentional. Inadvertent even.

Where learning and activities and themes just seem to happen, to arise from the dust and, like a Phoenix, to arise in glory.

I call this inadvertent Homeschooling. Where themes and connections appear to happen almost inadvertently...without deliberate planning. Just by being and doing.

The old maxim fail to plan, plan to fail does not consistently apply in Homeschooling. There are times, many times, many seasons, where deliberately choosing not to plan but to mosey along is the right path. Leads to learning.

And to our inadvertent themes.

Not themes of work planned and implemented and tweaked as we go.

But themes that must happen...so that one day, filling out our journal or log, talking, thinking about an outing or a book, we realize that there has been a theme and connection in our life and learning. Looks good on paper. Our thematic learning. Post and not pre-programmed. Recognized and written in our log after the fact.

Like our Australian unit this year.

Who knew we were going to get into Australian history?

Yet, looking back on the months so far of 2011, I see a theme, placed inadvertently amongst a visit to the King Tut museum, to trips to Melbourne, amidst some Maths and Physics and Latin and debates on liturgy.

We moved house. In the unpacking, Anthony rediscovered the My Story books, novels set in differing periods of Australian history. I began to find these left on a chair or a sofa, as he reread .

Looking for a post Easter activity, I remembered a reasonably local museum. So off we traipsed and learned about local Australian history and geography.

Awhile later, we were discussing church architecture and Anthony mentioned that he had wanted to visit the crypt of St Mary's Cathedral. Another outing, this time just we two, And a visit to the crypt told the story of colonial Sydney. Which made me drag out our copies of The Pictorial History of the Catholic Church in Australia.

Then, I found a leaflet about the Rocks Discovery Museum...the early settlement of Sydney Town. With wandering around the Rocks and Sydney Harbour and pancakes for lunch to follow.

Now if someone asks what-we-are-doing-for-school, we can say Australian history. Inadvertently.

Who knew that 2011 would involve Homeschooling with Australian history?

We deliberately failed to plan but no, we haven't failed. We have learned. We have had fun.

Again.

The learning inadvertent to life and fun.

Fitness. Highs. Lows.

2011-07-25T14:16:00.002+10:00

Fitness Highs and Lows

July Highs

1. Did copious weights workouts. Kelley Coffey-Myers 30 Minutes to Fitness Weights and Jari Love's Get Extremely Ripped, split onto the two thirty minute workouts. When work is busy and I am short of time...I need thirty minute workouts. But tough, effective ones. These two are great, especially for biceps and pecs and both are active so get your heart rate up for a cardio effect (think Body Pump classes).

2. Read some stuff on the whys of eating....parts of the Don't Go Hungry For Life book, parts of Losing It In France, parts of Intuitve Eating.

What is intuitive eating?

"It is free of obsession. It acknowledges that our compulsions are due to biochemical or emotional reasons and any over- or under-eating is a clue to begin looking further as an opportunity for learning."

3. I went to a dinner dance on Saturday night and I ate all three courses but only half of everything...it's okay, others at the table liked my leftovers! Half my pumpkin soup, half the fish and vegetables, half the caramel apple tart. And practiced some moderation with alcohol! Woo hoo!

July Lows

1. I put on some kilos. Yes, that little, horrible, sneaky weight trip. I realize that for me it's not enough to try to be intuitive, to be honest ....less intuition and more self discipline seem to be the ticket here. I mean, the feel good stuff is good is but I need plans and action. I'm just that kind of person. Hence my moderation at the dinner dance (see above) and my moderation all weekend. Go girl!

2. Not enough cardio. In line with the above, I realized that I need more cardio. Tough love. The last two days I have been doing those walking and jogging workouts, 45 minutes. I kind of like those endorphins and I need that cardio to lose that weight. Your mileage may vary but this works for me. And changing it up.

3. I hate my body. There, I said it. Not following a plan makes me feel fat, and makes me actually fat...those kilos I mentioned above. My skinny jeans fit but I look fat in them. My abs have gone to hell. See what happens when I don't watch what I eat...whereas two days of cardio and A Plan make me feel less fat... Sure I haven't lost weight yet, weight loss is slow for me, I know I am always in this for life and I am not after fast weight loss or a perfect body...but I feel more in control with that sensible eating plan. An "I've got this covered" feeling!

So there you have it. My July fitness post.

I've brushed myself off, thinking positively, dragged out some old mottoes, created some new.

"I've lost 40 kg in the last, a few kgs now won't be hard." No, that one doesn't work anymore. Makes.me feel like a failure.

" I take care of myself." Yes, that's a new one but a good one. A reminder when I want to turn to food.

" What I want most, WIWM." Yep, that still works. I really want to be healthier, look better in my clothes, not avoid the mirror when I'm wearing my skinny jeans or getting dressed.

" It's not an option INO." From Secrets of a Former Fat Girl. And, yes, it's not an option to drop the plan, I'm not like other people who can eat or not eat and not worry. I have a history of eating disorders so their eating and exercise habits are not an option for me.

And - " I don't do that any more." No, I don't. Or I tell myself I don't. Don't eat emotionally, for example. Don't expect perfection. Don't make it too hard or too easy on myself.

I don't.

Do you have any July fitness highs and lows?

Two Days..or..What do unschoolers do with their days?

2011-07-22T13:47:00.001+10:00

Two Days

"I will attempt, day by day, to break my will into pieces. I want to do God's Holy Will, not my own!" – St. Gabriel Possenti

And there are times, daily times, ordinary times, when doing God's will is doing just that...just the ordinary.

Unschooling this week has been ordinary and far from ordinary.

And I strive to balance my paid work, that which I do for the good of the family, with my work as a mother of young adults and a Homeschooling mother, responsible for an unschooling fifteen year old. Because although we might not be doing school we are educating. And kids, homeschooled kids, even home schooled teens, need time.

So, I try to break my will into pieces. And enjoy our unschooling days.

Two different days.

One a day of outings...upon my return from morning work, we discuss the saint for the day and the day's events. Let's go to the city!

I take my iPad for I know that I have work for Kumon. The kids read... talk... and listen to music in the car. We walk through Hyde Park, heads down, hoods on, hands in pockets, slumped against the rain. We split up..two of us to a bookstore, two to look at clothes, one to wander on his own. I check out perfumes on the way..

I work , sitting amongst books at the bookstore. I have a long telephone conference call. I look briefly at two books with a son and we all gather again for lunch in a food court. And discussion.

It is this discussion that educates. Be it on our morning, our books, our thoughts, our food.

Before we rush home. Me to afternoon work and some of the kids to finish decorating our Hat Cake.

And our outings close with Mass and the St Anthony novena.

The next day is different. More at home.

Perhaps more ordinary.

But unschooling is never really ordinary.

I work morning and afternoon shifts. One son works. One son teaches guitar in the evening, to students at their house and to his younger brother and a friend at our house. Another son takes the youngest and friends to drama class, and picks them up again. I teach Catechism to year two in the local school...and so results a discussion on the beatitudes and on being nice, that ubiquitous nice. Over coffee with a visitor.

And card games. And writing. And reading. And junk mail delivery. And mum cooks a late dinner after work, to have over episodes of Merlin with a friend.

Two days. Different. But oriented towards the day by day. That is what makes a life. An education. Day by day. Little by little.

Do unschoolers set goals?

2011-07-16T15:44:00.006+10:00

Do unschoolers set goals?

That has been our discussion at the Unschooling Catholics blog and email list. Check out our post on BHAGs and on living and learning alongside, leaning on that truck.

You know, sometimes we set goals or share visions and dreams. Sometimes we set ourselves targets and deadlines. And sometimes we fly by the seat of our pants.

I think both are valid.

They just suit different seasons of life.

Always being goal oriented can mean that we feel a trifle driven.

Now, driven can be good. Can keep us focused on that vision, can keep us on the straight and narrow so to speak.

Sometimes, however, we can concentrate so much on the goal that we lose sight of the passes, the twists, the turns, the cracks in the pavement along the way.

So maybe it is okay to have a goal yet to hold that goal loosely in our palm and be open to the little moments in life... The nudging of the Holy Spirit, the interruption, that teachable moment, seeing God in our daily interactions and serving Him with joy in our daily tasks.

And sometimes setting aside those tasks to follow the moment.. The sudden passion for a movie, a book, an urge to cook with mum, to go to the park or for a walk..

I often call this learning by osmosis. Goal or vision in mind but the how-to of achieving that goal is immersed in the living a good life. A life worth living. Good and bad. All things working for the good of those who love the Lord (to paraphrase St Paul).

Chatting to friends at dinner last night , we came upon goals, lofty goals, in homeschooling. And I said that while people may not want to read a book about my homeschooling (Battle Hymn of the Elephant Mother?) or want to pay money to hear me speak about my homeschooling method (in a nut shell - prayer and hang out together)... While this may be too simple to fill a homeschooling tome, nevertheless my goal in Unschooling has been to give the kids a good childhood. And knowing that the rest will follow.

A good childhood. A Swallows and Amazons , a Chalet School childhood.

Adventures. Freedom. Nature. Play and more play. Community. Mixed ages. Learning through interests and life. Faith. The tools of learning. Books. Time. Masterly inactivity on the part of mum. Hanging out together. Friends and family. Prayer. Knowledge shared over cups of tea and books and in museums and art galleries and bookshops and discussing movies and after Mass or over those rosary beads.

A time for focused formal study and much more time for exploration and hanging out and for play.

It paints a rosy picture, doesn't it? And while things may not always be rosy, the goal of a good childhood, while learning in a family focused environment , is always lingering n my mind. Helping me to make a choice, to pull up my socks mentally when things are less than rosy and work towards joy. And learning. And prayer.

That's why this unschooler believes in goals.... loose, flowing goals. With a strong dash of determination, commitment and perseverance.

Sprinkled liberally with prayer and thus steeped with liturgy and devotions.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal...The great method of prayer is to have none. If in going to prayer one can form in oneself a pure capacity for receiving the spirit of God, that will suffice for all method.

The Little Way

2011-07-11T14:15:00.003+10:00

It is no coincidence that the Catholic unschooling book, the one to which I am a contributor, is called A Little Way of Homeschooling.

No coincidence at all.

Because our lives as wives and mothers, as Christians, are often made up of that little way. Serving God in little ways. And often without recognition. Often, too, with disapproval and criticism.

And homeschooling, unschooling, trusting in the child and his learning, in the rich home environment, in the Holy Spirit can appear to be the most little way of all.

Seemingly nothing.

Yet everything.

Living a vocation and giving our all to Our Lord. With love and trust.

And it comes with a cost.

And with love.

St Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, wrote of assisting an arthritic nun in the community:

"Finally we reached the refectory without mishap; and here other difficulties arose. I had to seat Sister St Pierre and I had to act skilfully in order not to hurt her; then I had to turn back her sleeves (again in a certain way), and afterward I was free to leave. With her poor cripple's hands she was trying to manage with her bread as well as she could. I soon noticed this, and, each evening, I did not leave her until after I had rendered her this little service. As she had not asked for this, she was very much touched by my attention, and it was by this means that I gained her entire good graces.."

This is not a sentimental love, a love that says words but is based on self. This is love enacted, by paying attention to a person, honouring that person, honouring that God loves that person.

This is the way God loves us.

And how can we show our love for God and others? We can offer up all that we have and do. We can make small sacrifices for the sake of others...we wives and mothers can offer sacrifices and do penance for our family , for their souls, for their vocations, their chastity, their lives.

Those little things. That little way.

St Therese said again.."Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love."

Every little sacrifice.

Sacrifice?

Penance?

How does that work?

Penance has not only have a sanctifying effect on us as individuals ( to restrain the inordinate inclinations of self-love, as St Alphonsus Liguori wrote), but also on the Church as a whole. The more our life is patterned after the life of our Our Lord and Saviour, whose act of redemption entailed the greatest sacrifice, well, the more we will make up what is lacking in the body of Christ. As Saint Paul tells us ( Colossians 1:24).

But you know it is sometimes those little sacrifices that loom the biggest. That appear to be most hard.

I can get a rosy , aren't I so good, feeling from a big sacrifice...but the little every day sacrifices can seem so hard.

A penance, a sacrifice, offered in love for another can appear to be seemingly small...like giving up milk in one's cup of tea. And praying for the other.

Yet who knew that one would crave a cup of tea with milk. Who knew that one would find this sacrifice so hard, that it would be a true penance and a true occasion for prayer...and for learning about one's weakness.

Makes one think of St Therese and her little way. Only it doesn't seem to be so little any more.

The little way of loving and serving Our Lord and thus our families.

Yes, Minister?

2011-07-07T13:04:00.003+10:00

Our family is fond of the writings of G.K. Chesterton. Both his fiction (for example, those Father Brown stories) and his non fiction ( one of my favorites is What Is Wrong With The World?).

Chesterton was a convert to Catholicism and sometimes I can relate to his experiences. When sitting in the pew recently, one of his experiences, his quotes, on conversion, came to mind.

Chesterton wrote of the process of exploring and learning about the Catholic Faith.... that while this process is most enjoyable, it is "easier than joining the Catholic Church and much easier than trying to live the Catholic life."

What?

Well, it is just that when one becomes a Catholic, one starts to live within parish communities. One starts to experience liturgy in a variety of parishes and one starts to see the human frailties. This can be the beauty of Catholicism, acceptance of us all, warts and all. The Church is both divine and human, and so it cannot deviate from Truth., even though it may be made up of people who stray in human nature.

Why, then, did Chesterton's quote spring to mind in church?

I could see the human straying, in liturgy, in not seeking to understand the Church's teaching.

With regard to laity, not priests. Although the laity have not been formed correctly in this regard by their pastors.

You know, the priesthood of believers means that we all share in the ministry, the prayer, the role of the Church. No one denies this principle.

But how sad it is to see laity trying to replace or emulate or compete with the role of the ordained priesthood.

We all have roles to play. The role of the laity, however, is different to the role of the priest.

And not all priests or lay people understand this. They talk about ministry... Ministry of Holy Communion ( forgetting that these are Extraordinary Ministers and not to be there as an automatic occurrence), the Ministry of Music , of Lectors and, yes, of Collectors (handing out the baskets at the collection time is a ministry? Yes, or so it is said in some parishes).

Or we see Acolytes who try to take on the priest's role, cleaning sacred vessels while ignoring the concelebrating priest, deciding to hold a Communion service because Father has been delayed.

Acolytes are not mini priests.

Neither are parish committee members or chairpersons. We do not need what amounts to a second homily from the committee member, exhorting us to be a family, to grow in faith.

These misconceptions can make it more difficult than it should be, to sit in the pew and pray...and thus I sympathise with G. K. Chesterton's thoughts.

To put the record straight, this is not a matter of criticism. It is just an upholding of Church teaching.

To put the record straight, this is not a matter of personal taste in liturgy but a matter of incorrect understanding of the teaching of the Church on the role of the laity, especially in liturgy. An incorrect teaching or lack of knowledge of the documents of Vatican II and of ensuing documents.

But don't take my word for it. Read Christifideles Laici, Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation, written in 1987.

"In the same Synod Assembly ( the Synod of Bishops, 1987) , however, a critical judgment was voiced along with these positive elements, about a too-indiscriminate use of the word "ministry", the confusion and the equating of the common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood, the lack of observance of ecclesiastical laws and norms, the arbitrary interpretation of the concept of "supply", the tendency towards a "clericalization" of the lay faithful and the risk of creating, in reality, an ecclesial structure of parallel service to that

founded on the Sacrament of Orders."

Definitely post Vatican II. And defining the distinct but important roles of the laity ( the common priesthood) and the ministerial priesthood. A warning against making lay people into mini priests, a warning against bandying around the word ministry, lest the word and the role be devalued. A warning because, let's face it, if we, the laity, do everything except the consecration during the .liturgy, then our role in temporal affairs, that is to say, bringing the Gospel to the world, is devalued. It may be seen as unimportant unless it has a religious title. Whereas you and I both know that often it is that living and sharing the Gospel in our every day life, in the workplace, that is very effective in spreading the Good News.

And a warning because when this happens, then the role of the priest or of the religious brother is devalued, too. If lay people take communion to the sick , as a standard practice and not when a brother or priest is unavailable or busy, if lay people take over the liturgy or the Communion Service as standard practice, if those and other activities are undertaken as a matter of course and not when needed, if these are seen as ordinary and not extraordinary, then what encouragement is there for a young man to enter the religious life and/or priesthood? He may feel a call but see that this call can perhaps be fulfilled in many lay ministries and at seemingly less cost to self

These roles may initially be undertaken to help with the so-called vocation crisis but in the end they become one way to perpetuate the vocation crisis.

"Precisely to overcome these dangers the Synod Fathers have insisted on the necessity to express with greater clarity, and with a more precise terminology, both the unity of the Church's mission in which all the baptized participate, and the substantial diversity of the ministry of Pastors which is rooted in the Sacrament of Orders, all the while respecting the other ministries, offices and roles in the Church, which are rooted in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. In the first place, then, it is necessary that in acknowledging and in conferring various ministries, offices and roles on the lay faithful, the Pastors exercise the maximum care to institute them on the basis of Baptism in which these tasks are rooted. It is also necessary that Pastors guard against a facile yet abusive recourse to a presumed "situation of emergency" or to "supply by necessity", where objectively this does not exist or where alternative possibilities could exist through better pastoral planning. " Christifideles Laici again.

That old fallacy....

2011-06-29T14:05:00.003+10:00

There is a fallacy making the rounds, being perpetuated yet again.

Really, as Belloc said in Survivals and New Arrivals, there are no new fallacies. No new heresies. Just old ones, the same ones, wrapped in slightly different tissue paper, in slightly different words, but essentially the same heresies...the same errors.

Just when we think it is safe to pray at mass in peace, to receive Our Lord with reverence and grace, so we can "meet the Lord in all His love for us, ... are ready to respond, especially in the care we give to the poorest and those most in need, those closest to the Heart of our Saviour."(Archbishop

Nichols)..well, then we hear that same old heresy arise again.

Which one ?

You know, the one about the ancient Church. That the liturgy or practices of the ancient Church are those to which we should return today.

Which completely denies the living tradition of the Church, denies the Church's wisdom and authority, the Church's experience throughout history, Divine Revelation.

81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."

"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."

83...Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church's Magisterium. Catechism of the Catholic Church

So when I hear that the correct posture for receiving Holy Communion is on the hand, with the example of the early Church used as a supposedly definitive argument, I cringe.

Not because I want to enter into a debate about posture for receiving Holy Communion or reverence in reception...this has already been discussed by the Church and shared on this blog before...no, I cringe because of the fallacious argument. And because of the use of the word proper.

And I cringe because I hate to see poor argument. I mean, the proponents of a return to early practices in the Church deny the living tradition described in the CCC. And I note that those using the argument of the early Church as being definitive and for their own particular preference, are selective about which practices to which they wish to return.

Hmmm.

"The "early church" arguments offered would be more persuasive if those who invoke them were more consistent in applying the principle. For example, one never hears of a liturgist urging a return to bread and water fasts, public penance for adultery, and other strict ascetical practices common in the early Church. Thus the "more traditional than thou" arguments for liturgical changes, which ignore the past several centuries of development in Catholic doctrine and liturgical practice, seem unconvincing." ( See more discussion here)

When one discusses the teaching of the Church , particularly in a public setting and when representing the Church, or in a teaching position or within a homily, then it is important that one does not rely on personal preference and on fallacious argument. Lest others be lead astray. Or scandalized, when they find the errors in argument and that, in fact, some teachings of the Church are not what they were lead to believe, that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes.

"Therefore my own tastes, my own preferences, my own personality, my own view of ecclesiology, are marginal, of little importance, when it comes to the celebration of the Mass. We don vestments to minimise our personal preferences, not to express or emphasise them."(Archbishop Nichols, again).

Costly Grace

2011-06-24T14:49:00.002+10:00

"John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.'" (Jn 1:29)

I was inspired during the homily this morning.

Inspired because as Father preached on the the feast of St John the Baptist, preached on this saint's humility and poverty, a humility and poverty akin to the humility and poverty of St Francis and of the Franciscan way of life, the words of the homily and the words of Sacred Scripture pierced my every day thinking, my holiday mode.

Behold the Lamb of God, he who takes away the sin of the world.

As Father said, this should be our call to the world, we should raise up our voices, even in a seeming wilderness, and cry out...here, here is Jesus, the Lamb of God. Here is why we come to mass. Not for warm fuzzy feelings or out of a sense of duty or to socialize, but for love.

And this is what our lives should proclaim to the world. That Jesus is the Lamb of God, that He died for love of us.

Father's challenge is this, the challenge if the Gospel, the challenge of the Christian way of life.

Relationship with Our Lord, He who died for us, should mean a transformation. Of self, of family, of culture.

There is no gap between Catholicism and evangelism . To be Catholic, to be a Christian, is to live a life showing the Lamb of God to others.

Simply to confess a belief in a Catholic view of Christ is to take a counter-cultural position which demands apologetics and explanation. Demands love and forgiveness.

And fidelity.

Now, is this always easy?

No.

But did St John the Baptist count the cost?

Again, to quote the homily heard this morning, ...no, no counting of cost but a heroic call to cry the Gosepl by word and deed , even at cost of life.

That dying to self, if not necessarily a physical death.

This is the challenge. The cost. For I want to be me. To not give up those parts of me that I hold dear.

God's grace can sometimes come with a cost.A joy, a grace a love, yes. But.. He loves, He gives, He calls.

(The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer) "Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace."

Costly grace. So that my life, and yours, echoes the cry of St John the Baptist...look, look, here is Jesus, the Lamb of God, come let us adore, come let us follow, let us live.

Nice and Bland.

2011-06-15T23:21:00.005+10:00

"If mankind forgets God this is also because Jesus is often reduced to the status of a wise man, and His divinity is diminished if not denied outright. This way of thinking makes it impossible to comprehend the radical novelty of Christianity ,.."

So the Holy Father said, recently.

And so I have seen, recently.

When Jesus is seen as a nice man, a wise man, a prophet who came to teach us to be our own versions of nice, then Christianity is reduced to a laundry list of to dos.. Be nice to your neighbour, help a friend, don't judge , don't criticise.

We miss the challenge, the radical call to reason and to love, to relationship, to worship.

And Christianity then becomes another self help organization... As in the style of the self help books I perused last weekend at Dymocks...Ten Steps to A Better You, Be The Best You Can Be, Your Best Life Ever.

Or.. Create Your Own Miracle in Forty Days.

And.. Lose Weight, Be Happier and Have More Energy in 10 Days.

As one son said, I am surprised that it can't be done in one week..

If Jesus is seen as just another teacher, then not only is God missed and bypassed but so, too, is bypassed any real challenge to love and to know.

These are replaced by that bland, beige niceness... That niceness that makes salvation hard, to paraphrase C. S. Lewis again. (I'm alright , Jack. I'm nice without God)

We do our children a disservice, too, when we water down Christ and His Church and her teachings. If, in an effort to be relevant, we swab clean our terms and our teaching, if we don't share the hard stuff .

Take a recent lesson for Catechism class. On the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Fortitude? Wisdom? And the ilk?

No, the teacher's manual spoke of gifts the children could supposedly understand. Sharing. Helping another.

I'm sorry but sharing as a gift of the Holy Spirit just makes Christianity look like yet another set of classroom rules... We help one another. We share. We respect other people's property. Ad infinitum. Chanted daily. Pointed to when misdemeanors occur. Watered down. Wishy washy. Almost meaningless.

And misses God and the Holy Spirit all together.

"Jesus wants us to be nice to others."

Bypassing the challenge to relationship, to knowledge.

And don't tell me that children today can't understand the faith, have no need of challenge.

In a secular world, one in which they grow up all too fast, there is a need for a real, attractive alternative. Something that makes them stop and think. Something outside themselves and the dumbed down curriculum.

So today I introduced the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Including Awe and Wonder, or Fear of the Lord. We had flashcards. We had meanings in one or two words or small phrases. We played a game showing visible and invisible gifts. We broke into groups and the seven and eight year olds got it... They illustrated, by picture and in words, their group's gift.

No bypassing God.

No watered down terminology.

No lukewarm list of beige, unfeeling niceness.

But a call, a challenge, to think and to know.

And eventually to love.

And no moralistic therapeutic deism..." a watered-down faith that portrays God as a “divine therapist” whose chief goal is to boost young people’s self-esteem".

An Unschooling vignette

2011-06-09T09:55:00.003+10:00

A vignette of an unschooling week?

What have we done? Well I have been sick and working and getting exhausted so that curtails everything!

Anthony has spent some time at university with his brothers, typically reading in the university library while they have been in class. The head librarian told me she loves my boys because they all love to read, especially poetry. ( What a nice thing to say!)

We are watching one Harry Potter movie a week, in preparation for the new Harry Potter movie which comes out on July 13. My, how young were the actors for Hermione and Ron and Harry in the first movie!

We are eagerly watching the Dr Who series each week. Amy pregnant? Does Rory trust the Dr??

And we quite like the Sarah Jane Chronicles, a spin off from Dr Who and my Mother's Day present...an episode a night....

Anrhony has been picking up the books from the My Story series.. We own the whole set, novels in Australian history, he has read some but he saw the set on the shelf and decided to read his way though.

Mondays, Anthony has two friends over for gaming before we go to my Kumon centre and this week because I was sick I gave them money to walk to the fish and chips shop and buy chips and potato scallops for lunch. A real treat!

We have been praying the St Anthony novena and going to masses and Anthony has been serving. On Tuesday I had to go to the doctor and do Kumon banking so we met another homeschool family for coffee.

Weekly stuff is drama class , piano class and son Alexander teaches guitar on Wed nights to Anthony and one of his friends.

Jonathon, Alexander and Thomas are on university study break, exams next week.

We had a friar over for coffee and a chat. Anthony wrote an essay on St Bonaventure because when we were in Melbourne and talking to a friar Anthony's knowledge on the saint was woeful ( a Franciscan! A Doctor of the Church! One of my favourite saints! Gasp!) so I said "Good practice for uni one day.. Do some research, write 1000 words on the saint some time". He finally got around to it and one of his brothers read it, said great info but needed an introduction and conclusion. So we talked about these and a hook .

Anthony has also done some Kumon Maths while his brothers have been studying. And hung out with them and played games and did junk mail delivery. We have talked about booking excursions for homeschoolers to an Australian museum and to a cemetery after I booked an excursion for the OOSH kids (my other job not the Kumon one) to tour McDonalds.

And at OOSH I taught a few little girls to knit, they are knitting scarves for teddies. I brought home their knitting so I could do a few lines at night and speed up the knitting progress. This sparked memories in my sons and we all laughed and talked about when they were little and I taught them to knit and they knitted scarves and jackets for teddies and belts and gun holsters for themselves and how they thought knitting grew by itself over night as I would surreptitiously knit a few lines for them myself each night... just as with the kids at work!

Thomas is baking bread today, they are all helping me with work for my Kumon centre and will work for me at Kumon tonight. This week I have been in cooking mode..something about me being sick makes me want to cook, even though I don't feel like eating. Or maybe it just winter? I've made Pasta Carbonara, Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding, Apple Pie, Fettucine with a fresh tomato sauce, Apple Cake....

Currently listening to chant, in honour of St Ephrem, Doctor of the Church, composer of poetry and hymns.

So that's been our Unschooling week! Although I have asked Anthony today to please ( for Mummy!) look at his Saxon Physics and some Latin and Anthony,Thomas and Alexander have enrolled in the Macquaurie University Winter Language School for a week of Introduction to Coptic. And I found an amazing recipe for a lemon cake using lemons we grew in our tree-in-a -pot and we made this fantastic cake for the Ascension !

Solemn Novena to Saint Anthony of Padua

2011-06-06T08:36:00.003+10:00

Go over to the Moment By Moment blog, the blog for the MI Australia for the prayers for the solemn novena.

St Anthony is a special saint for our family. Okay, he helps us find lost things. But more than that, the saint is an example of love and of faithfulness.

All our sons have Anthony as one of their names.

We pray the weekly novena to St Anthony in the Tuesday night St Anthony mass in our parish, a parish under the care of the Conventual Franciscans.

And our little unschooling homeschool is called St Anthony's Academy.

Liturgy as catechesis

2011-06-05T15:45:00.003+10:00

" If one modifies the liturgy, however, instead of making the liturgy "more meaningful" one runs the risk of changing the meaning altogether and of despoiling the wealth already contained within the sacred liturgy."

So I am quoting myself. Pathetic I know. But a quote from one of my recent essays, for the Liturgy and Life unit.

And why am I quoting myself? Not because I am fabulous (satirical laugh) but because the quote came to mind. Because it's June.

There are quite a few solemnities this June. Including the Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi.

I have seen a tendency in some parishes to add activities to the sacred liturgy in an attempt to make the feast or solemnity and thus the liturgy more meaningful .

Dancing girls. Liturgical dance and movement. For example.

Now, I am not going to write a diatribe against these activities. A look at the General Instructions to the Roman Missal lets one know what is allowed and when and how.

At these times, however, I do ponder the meaning of sacred liturgy.

The beauty, the splendor, the rubrics of the liturgy clearly describe each feast or solemnity. Be it by the colour of vestments et al, denoting the feast or by the prayers of the Collect, for example.

The liturgy itself, with rubrics carefully followed, with care paid to music and to liturgical arts, is catechesis. No need to add to the liturgy to give it extra meaning. Better to follow the prayers, the rite, with reverence and due consideration and thus raise the faithful's hearts and minds towards the deep meaning of the solemnity, to an understanding of the feast, to an understanding of the Church's teaching and so to a closer relationship with Our Lord.

This is catechesis in action. I know. From experience.

As a new Catholic in the 1990s, I attended Mass in the Extraordinary Form and over the course of time learned about the saints, about the solemnities and their significance, about the Eucharist... and so I was drawn closer and closer to Christ and to a deeper understanding of my faith, heart, mind, body and soul.

And this catechesis is not restricted to Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Of course not!

As the CCC says : 1074 "The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all her power flows."It is therefore the privileged place for catechizing the People of God. "Catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole of liturgical and sacramental activity, for it is in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, that Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of men."

It is in the sacraments that Jesus Christ works in fullness. To transform the faithful. Not in activities that change the focus , in small or large ways, from Christ, from prayer, from the solemnity, in the name of so-called education or community.

Another Fitness Post

2011-06-01T15:50:00.003+10:00

Weight: Two kilos gone. Two. In one week. Is there something wrong? Should I worry? Can I not self sabotage? Look out skinny jeans..here I come!

Food Epiphany: 1. Alcohol can fit into a calorie controlled diet. Just sayin'. In case you were worried.

2. There is an argument for counting calories carefully and not estimating all the time. And for not eating too little...duh, Leonie! Avoiding the eating too few calories trap has taken me awhile. See Calorie Queens .

General: Good quote..."After decades in this field, I can honestly say that most, if not all, of the disordered eaters I have known or worked with are excellent caretakers of others and poor caretakers of themselves." The Rules of Normal Eating.

Fitness: Battling a cough and cold and this is reflected in workouts.

Sat: The FIRM Cardio Workout with the accompanying weighted gloves. A kickboxing inspired workout with some nice plank work for abs at the end. Pulls a lot of punches (pun intended!) in twenty minutes.

Sun: Dance With Julianne. A sweaty dance workout, really works your abs and makes you feel like you are dancing in a music clip. Contemporary. Forty minutes. Intermediate level. Good workout, choreographed by Jen Galardi, a fave dance fitness instructor of mine. Julianne looks a bit like a Barbie doll and over uses the word sexy and with my headache I could not, would not, shake my head and hair as she did...but the cardio was fun and my body was worked.

Mon: Leslie Sansone Walk Away Your Waistline. Gosh, I chose this because Monday was not a good day for me and I needed a mindless workout. But I loved the ab belt. You really suck in your abs and the weighted handles provide some upper body toning when you do the arm movements while walking with Leslie and her "pals." 3 miles 45 minutes.

Tues: Too much coughing. Too busy. No workout. Grr. I hate giving in.

Wed: Today. The other twenty minute FIRM Ignite workout ( see last week). I've done this before, but it was harder today...that cough and cold! Major coughing fit after but it was too cool a workout to ignore. Cardio, then cardio bursts with intervals of weights, followed by cardio and an ab toning cool down/stretch. Burpees with weighted squats!

Okay,that's fitness today in a nut shell. For those of you who asked...you know who you are, my fellow fitness friends..

Fitness today

2011-05-24T22:35:00.000+10:00

Fitness today

Workout: The FIRM Ignite Calorie Burn

Food epiphany: 1. Sometimes I can eat calorie controlled junk instead of dinner. Really. No guilt.

2 it's good to eat breakfast ( muesli and low fat yogurt) even if it's at 10,30 am.

3. From Nice Girls Finish Fat - one doesn't always have to be perfect, do everything well.

General: I lost over a kg this week. With cardio ( mostly Just Sweat), calorie awareness and mindfulness.

The FIRM Ignite workout is two workouts, each roughly twenty minutes. You can do one or both workouts and , to my mind, are the FIRM's answer to the very popular Jillian Michaels' twenty minute workouts. High intensity cardio bursts with strength training intervals.

I like these workouts. The two instructors, Emily and Rebekah, are encouraging. Since the strength training is not done at lightening speed, I can actually go a bit heavier than I can with Jillian. I used 3 kgs.

There are cardio bursts, each athletic and each eight seconds. Four in a row, with twelve second recovery moves in between, before the next strength training or cardio or standing abs.

Today I fell flat on my face, doing the big boy push ups and tricep kickbacks with weights, in Rebekah's Interval Blast The workout fairy must have had a good laugh!

And the morning glories, with bicep curl and overhead press...well let's just say a core and balance challenge for this mum of seven!

I'd rate the workouts high intermediate or low advanced. Not killer. But good. One could make it easier with low impact and lighter weights. Or harder with even more energy and heavier weights.

And twenty minutes on time challenged days is super...good calorie burn intervals equal the burn of slower, steady rate cardio.

And fun! The fun factor, you know, is pretty important to me.

So, another fitness post! Check in next week for an update....

A snapshot

2011-05-22T21:08:00.005+10:00

I keep a sometimes journal, a sometimes log of our unschooling activities. I aim to do it daily, to meet Homeschool regulations .

Many days I list our activities in curriculum areas.

Some days I list the educational outcomes matched to the activities.

And the best diary days are those little lists of our days.

Just a list.

Just a snapshot.

Of the days and of the learning.

So here is a snapshot of Friday.

Anthony has been wanting to visit the crypt of St Mary's Cathedral for awhile. And so have I! I thought after am work and before pm work we could squeeze it in.

We were going to go with friends but that didn't pan out. So we went. Nothing stops we intrepid unschoolers.

I came home from work, Anthony's brothers left for college. Anthony was gaming with his brothers then played piano. I hope he tidied his room!

We drove into the city, Anthony choosing music on my iPod on the way,

And wandered and wandered around the crypt, using the map and description and recalling our long ago reading of the Pictotial History of the Catholic Cburch. Made a note to strew those books again this week.

Prayed. Visited stain glass. Prayed again.

We searched and searched for the remains of the original cathedral ..and celebrated our finding with a photo on Facebook and a Mr Whippy ice cream.

Walked around Hyde Park. Watched a chess game in the park.

Sat in the sun on the grass and met friends for lunch. Sitting in the sun, eating, chatting.

Then home. In a traffic jam. A race because I had to get to work.

I dropped Anthony at the local library, with an errand to visit the ABC store for me. He caught the bus to piano lessons and then had a hot chocolate and a cookie at Subway, waiting for me to pick him up after work. And read more of A Little Princess. I know. He told me about his reading in the car!

Then when I was at mass Anthony went to youth group in our parish. With his brothers,

And home again. For more reading and a family viewing of one episode of Murder She Wrote.

I still have that crime unschooling rabbit trail in mind....last year it was a romantic comedy rabbit trail...why not crime movies this year..

Yes, why not?

From museums to churches to romantic comedies to crime genre. A snapshot.

Of unschooling.

A fitness post

2011-05-21T14:40:00.000+10:00

Be strong.

Be fit.

Have fun.

Lose weight.

Billy Blanks' Taebo motto.

I haven't had a fitness post in awhile. But I'm still working out. And wanting to lose a few kgs

But how? As someone who lost almost 40kg over a five year period, I know the ins and the outs, the ups and the downs, of weight loss. Of weight maintenance .

I am chubby. I don't think I will ever be slim. There was a period just after my weight loss when I was sick and I lost even more weight.. And people at church said I looked fantastic. Maybe I did. I wasn't eating but I was working out hard.

But I can't continue that in my normal life. Well, not at the present. So I am at a normal weight for me now. Not a fantastic looking weight.

However, I would like to lose a few kgs. Not to be at that fantastic looking hard for me to maintain weight . But to be healthier. To not cringe quite so much, when I look at myself.

And to work on that emotional eating.

Because one day recently I not only felt strong emotions but I expressed them. And as soon as I did I knew I needed to eat. Eat something fattening. To help with feeling and expressing those strong emotions.

I wanted pasta but settled for fish and chips. Too much fish and chips.

Mmmm

I know I eat to deal with emotions but I do it anyway. ( At least it's a big step up from not knowing why I eat)

Nice Girls Finish Fat. A book I have owned for awhile but that I couldn't let myself get into. Because I like being nice. And what would happen if I wasn't?

I read a section and thought, well, maybe I can set limits and boundaries. For myself. And others.

For example, I can make The Plan for my continuing workouts and for getting eating on track. I can make food the last thing I turn to when dealing with emotions. I can enjoy the food and alcohol but choose lower calorie versions . I can savour and eat mindfully.

I can put a stop button on myself.

I can blog my weekly exercise and food because maybe others are here, too.

I can pray.

I can risk not always being nice.

I can take who I am as a strong person, a strong woman, and be strong where I am weak. With the strength of prayer . Because Mary, our Mother, was strong, too. And her prayers are strong.

So... Update for this week? I have loved, loved, loved more cardio workouts ... Especially Just Sweat, the workout part to the Wii Just Dance game. And Ellen Barrett's pilates based floorwork. And today a very cool kickboxing work.

And watching my calories. Yet still eating yummy stuff!

And doing that whole mindful thing... Why are you eating?

It's been fun! Especially the cardio workouts. I am a bit addicted to those.

So maybe I will blog on fitness again. Every now and then.

We are what we eat. And do. And think.

That's living without school.

More Marian Strewing

2011-05-16T22:53:00.002+10:00

More Marian Strewing

So how goes the month of May in your Homeschooling home?

Any May crownings?

A maypole perhaps?

Some extra Marian prayers?

I pray a prayer each evening to Our Lady, Untier of Knots

I am trying to dwell on Mary as a mother, for me and for my sons.

I am trying to rest my cares with Our Mother, for her intercession.

I am trying to remember Mary as a role model, that feminine genius oft discussed by Blessed John Paul Ii and by St Teresa Benedicta.

"What Lucifer lost by pride Mary won by humility." True Devotion, no 53, St Louis de Montfort.

And I am strewing some more Marian activities.

Thanks once again to Meredith Henning and her book "Mondays With Mary".

Next week we have the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, patroness of Australia.

So, in addition to mass and prayers, I thought we could celebrate with cooking. As usual. Based on the snake or devil theme yet again. For Mary crushes the head of the serpent.

Jelly with lolly snakes set in the jelly.

And Devilled Eggs.

The following week, May 31, is the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin.

Strew a bouquet of flowers, near our dining table statue.

Pray or recite The Magnificat.

Make a special cake, with candied rose petals as decoration.

And eat, and think, and pray, for..."If the hurricanes of temptation rise against you, or you are running upon the rocks of trouble, look to the star - call on Mary!" St Bernard of Clairvoux

Strewing Mary in the month of May

2011-05-13T00:04:00.000+10:00

Strewing Mary in the month of May.

I attempt to strew my life, my love, my devotion to Mary, by the way I live, who I am, how I pray

But May is also a good time to strew in practical ways. To enrich the unschooling life.

On our table we have the book Through The Year With Mary by fellow homeschooler Karen Edmisten. Quotes throughout the year, one for every day, quotes on Our Lady. We can read one every few days, we can pick up the book and peruse when sleepily chewing toast for breakfast...I can even share some quotes on Facebook!

At the computer table, we have the book Mondays With Mary by Meredith Henning, also a fellow homeschooler. Kept handy ( at a computer, that hub of life!) so that we can pick and choose activities for some of the Marian feasts this month.

Like tomorrow. May 13. Our Lady of Fatima. Anthony and his friend will be making a paper plate sun for a table decoration ( the day the sun danced) and baking Devil's Food Cupcakes ( representing the vision of hell) and covered with blue cream cheese frosting ( representing Mary's mantle of grace).

And more strewing ideas for other feasts this month.... Our Lady Help of Christians ( May 24) and the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( May 31 and son Luke's confirmation anniversary ).

But I will share those ideas another day.

For we have the whole month of May for focused, Marian, unschooling strewing.

"My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God." Fatima, June 13, 1917

Strewing the month of May

2011-05-07T18:28:00.021+10:00

The month of May is dedicated to Our Lady, Our Blessed Mother, Mary.

I often seem to be the antithesis of the qualities ascribed to Mary...the antithesis of holy, gentle, loving.

Yet I take hope in her intercession for me, her love for me. That I will act as I am called.

Mary's prayers for her children are powerful indeed.

For...Mary was raised to the dignity of Mother of God rather for sinners than for the just, since Jesus Christ declares that he came to call not the just, but sinners. -- St. Anselm

Here is one of our table displays for the month of May. How comforting to come downstairs and have this greet me, of a morning. To have this greet the family, as they, too, wander downstairs, half awake.

Don't talk to us in the morning. If you can help it. We are not really morning people. Let us just be. Let us just gaze. At our current unschooling strewing.

An icon of Our Lady.

All my own perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded upon Our Lady.
-J.R.R. Tolkien

Mary as mother is an unschooling wife and mother's hope. We place our hope, our trust, our motherly and wifely worries in her care...and we know she will intercede for us to Christ, her son, Our Lord.

So perhaps as we look at unschooling strewing, so perhaps we can strew Mary in the month of May... icons, prayers, consecration, the Rosary, quotes from the saints and from the Catechism, books.

Our lives, dedicated to our Blessed Mother and her Son, to our families.

The measure of unschooling is, in part, us...who we are speaks volumes to our family... and our children become snapshots of their life with us. Of their unschooling, learn-and-live-and-share lives.

Yes. As we follow Mary today so we show Christ to our family.

The reason why Christ is unknown today is because His Mother is unknown. Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman

No classrooms. No homework.

2011-04-27T15:59:00.000+10:00

Wandering around museums, reading, looking, talking. Who knows what rabbit trails you will find.

And there lies the beauty, the learning, the education, the atmosphere of relations , for unschoolers.

For we do not plan a museum trip with firm outcomes in mind.

We go. Out of interest. Out of something to do. We know we will learn... But exactly what it is that we will learn, well, that we are unsure of.

Meandering around a local museum yesterday, we knew we would learn about local Australian history. And geography. And culture.

But our Unschooling museum rabbit trail involved far more than that. It involved literature...

Imagine my bookworm heart being excited to find that Trollope, yes, the Anthony Trollope, he of Barchester Towers fame, had visited the early colony in the 1800s. Had even written in praise of the area. Has travelled on one of the first trains to the area . And that, subsequently, there was a landmark named after him. Trollope's Reach.

A search with google, with my phone and maps, with museum volunteers, showed that no one these days knows of Trollope's Reach.

But what an interesting trail! And on arrival home, I promptly set boys to look for our novels by Trollope, to tall about his books, to discuss married Anglican Bishops, to display and strew some novels on the dining table, to say to Anthony "Oh my goodness, you haven't read Trollope? You must!"

A literary museum rabbit trail, within the realm of the expected Australian history education, within discussions and research on female emancipation, convicts and free men, Mary Reiby, the Arndell family, Bligh and Macquaurie and currency and the novel/TV aeries Sara Dane...

And so, as today we, Anthony and I, sit in the airport, on our way interstate to another museum, this time for the King Tut exhibition, I can't help but wonder what rabbit trails we will find.

Egyptian history, yes.

But possibly there is another window there, a window to a new area, a new interest, to new ideas .

A window to a new Unschooling rabbit trail.

Or.. Perhaps not!

It's all an adventure anyway.

A homeschooling, Unschooling adventure.

No classrooms. No homework.

Museums and rabbit trails.

Liturgical... What?

2011-04-21T14:49:00.003+10:00

Two different masses.

Both outside my parish.

One evening last week I attended a mass with older girl altar servers in attendance. Maybe girls aged eighteen to twenty.

The head or senior server wore a fancy hair do with frangipani flowers in her hair, lots of eye makeup, dangling earrings to match the liturgical year. Very distracting!

Why was I looking and allowing myself to be distracted? I was up the front in one of those altar-in-the-middle churches so no choice but to be distracted when I looked up from my missal and from prayer, to adore Jesus.

Mass the next day was a different affair. A more traditional chapel. Mass, again, in the Ordinary Form. Celebrated with reverence. Altar servers in soutanes and surplices, serving unobtrusively and with dignity.

Sometimes I feel like I live with liturgical schizophrenia!

Are people naive?

2011-04-20T06:58:00.001+10:00

Are people naive?

I heard a speaker the other night, one who had been at university and seminary at the time of the Second Vatican Council, talk about his feeling of enthusiasm during the Council. He felt, he said , that he and others thought that the Council would be a "new Pentecost." And he said that experience has shown that this was not the case.

Were they really so naive?

So naive as to think that a relatively large drift from tradition in a relatively short period of time would yield positive fruit? When history and human nature shows us that people need guidelines and ritual and routine. .. take these away and you cause confusion and floundering . And without the safety net of beliefs and customs, there is often a vacuum within each one, a vacuum waiting to be filled... and sometimes it is filled by apathy. Or secularism.

Indeed, instead of naivety and thinking all change is for the good, all change is a new Pentecost, we can heed the words of the Holy Father...." We are not a production plant, we are not a for-profit business, we are Church . That means a community of men standing together in faith. The task is not to manufacture some product or to be a success at selling merchandise. Instead the task is to live the faith in an exemplary way, to proclaim it and at the same time to keep this voluntary association, which cuts across all cultures, nations, and times and is not based on external interests , spiritually connected with Christ and so with God himself ." (Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World)

A Fifteen Year Old Unschooler's Reading List

2011-04-19T10:57:00.003+10:00

In January, lounging around the sitting room on a very hot day, an idea was formed.

We all love books.

Could we make a list, specific for our interests and for Anthony, an avid reader , of books or authors he could read this year? Our last unschooler, while brothers are at university or away, to read and share? That ongoing family literary discussion.

Of course, the making of the list involved discussion, debate, quotes ... And friends on Facebook!

So here is Anthony's list... A beginning list...

Dickens, Charles - Martin Chuzzlewit

Goldsmith,Oliver – She Stoops to Conquer (play, 18th century comedy)

Shakespeare, William – King Lear

Shakespeare, William – A Midsummer Night's Dream

Trollope, Anthony – Barchester Towers

Eliot, T.S. - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Arnold, Matthew – Culture and Anarchy (Non-fiction, 19th century criticism)

James, Henry – The Europeans

Pope, Alexander – The Rape of the Lock (poem, 18th century)

Dryden, John – MacFlecknoe (poem, 17th century)

Plato – The Apology of Socrates

Aeschylus – Oresteian trilogy (plays)

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Jonson, Ben – Volpone (play, 17th century)

Shaw, Bernard – Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant

Johnson, Dr Samuel – Introductions to King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream (18th century criticism)

Swift, Jonathon – Gulliver's Travels

Contemporary Criticism (I can send through a selection of recent articles from American and English writers)

Hartnett, Cynthia – The Wool Pack

Orwell, George – Animal Farm

Tey, Josephine – The Daughter of Time

Epictetus – Sayings (Stoic philosopher)

The Little Princess

Seven Little Australians

The day I became an autodidact

John Wyndham

John Christopher

Cynthia Violet

Yes Minister

Sir Walter Scott

E. Nesbit

Noel Streetfield

Stories from Opera

Chesterton

Belloc

To Kill a Mockingbird

Chesterton’s saints (St. Francis, St Thomas)

Waugh’s Edmund Campion

The Andromeda Strain & Jurassic Park

Jane Austen

Little Women

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Terry Pratchet

Lepanto by Chesterton

A Fortunate Life

R. L. Stevenson

Joan of Arc Belloc

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

Cheaper by the dozen

Belles on their toes

Collin Thiele

Biography of Pope John Paul II (Wiegel)

Tim Winton

No have-tos but hopefully some want-tos. With discussion. And maybe even blogging or email. Or Facebook.

Unschooling Resource Post # Three

2011-04-16T22:14:00.003+10:00

What else helps us unschool?

Our form of life without school means weaving education into life , threading an interest into a day, a book into a car trip, a movie alongside dinner.

A shopping trip and a discussion.

Learning to read with computer games and Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes.

Understanding strategies and problem solving playing Warhammer.

That kind of thing.

So what helps us in this life? We cook and we pray, as discussed in recent posts.

With the thread of prayer, our life is woven.

But to weave requires time.

Plain and simple, to unschool requires time. Not always quality time but quantative time. Time spent day after day, day in and day out.

And not even time spent in great pursuits, in learning adventures, or even mindfully.

These sorts of time are important to unschooling, to learning, to memories...but so is the every day time, ordinary time, time spent in the dailiness, the discipline of life...but spent together more often than not.

Time like a morning last week.

The older boys were up and went to university, with a friend who had stayed the night. I was going to work eleven a.m. until six p.m , no six forty-five a.m. start for a change and Mass for St Anthony at seven that night...so I had a slow morning... no rushing, just doing stuff at home, chatting to the fifteen year old unschooler son, doing a workout while he played computer games and then we did chores together. We went to the shopping centre and post office about ten and just had time to talk about inconsequential things ... but those things make relationships don't they? Anthony helped me buy shoes, we talked about his winter clothing needs then I drove to work and he went to the library, to walk home the thirty minute walk later, to do some Maths and Saxon Physics and meet up with his older brother at home to fold junk mail.

Almost sounds like nothing, doesn't it? But that is the simplicity of unschooling time.... That which is small is actually great. The little spending of time in small things reaps big benefits long term....The chores, the discussion, the reading is woven into learning and relationships and memories and Faith and Love.

The Little Way of Homeschooling. As in that new unschooling book. And that quote, again, of St Therese...."You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them."

Unschooling Resource Post # Two

2011-04-10T19:16:00.002+10:00

What else is it that helps our family unschool?

For me it is prayer.

I cannot see how one can unschool, can live one's life as an open book for one's children, can share every day, highs and lows, sorrows and joys, busyness and minutiae, without prayer.

Without prayer, my unschooling life would be a hive of activity, needing bolstering with reading and affirmations and subject to individualism.

With prayer underpinning my efforts as an unschooling mum, our busyness can be mindful, our interest driven education and lifestyle can be part of a bigger picture of life as a Christian, in the Church, with service for others.

"All the basic themes are the one you have noted: Do not become utterly absorbed in activism! There would be so much to do that one could be working on it constantly. And that is precisely the wrong thing. Not becoming totally absorbed in activism means maintaining considerario, discretion, deeper examination, contemplation, time for interior pondering, vision, and dealing with things, remaining with God and meditating about God. " Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the World.

Would I be able to unschool without prayer, without this meditation about God? Well, as often as family life provides comfort and satisfaction, as often as I may enjoy the juggling act of work and family, there are many times when things fall...the juggle becomes a heap, a mess. It is prayer that lifts me up from the sometimes messiness of an unschooling life to the experience of Our Lord, His Love...and the purpose of it all.

Prayer snatches me from the everydayness and pushes me towards God, reminding me to be faithful in my vocation, to live with purpose, to share my life unceasingly. To unschool.

That sursum corda in the mass, when my heart and mind is lifted up to the Lord so that I receive the grace to continue in my vocation.

The Holy Father wrote, of liturgy, of public prayer "...the decisive thing is that we enter into something that is much greater. That we can get out of ourselves, as it were, and into the wide open spaces....liturgy, in truth, is an event by means of which we let ourselves be introduced into the expansive faith and prayer of the Church." (Light of the World)

Talking about unschooling resources? Don't forget prayer.

Unschooling Resource # One

2011-03-29T13:43:00.000+11:00

"What are the resources you use in your unschooling?"

I get this question. People love to know the ins and the outs ( the hot and the cold)....So I thought I would write some posts, every now and then, about what we actually use in our unschool, our Homeschool, now, this very minute.

Let me tell you (again) about cookbooks.

Cookbooks a resource in the Homeschool?

Yes, right now, these are what we use the most.

Saints At the Dinner Table, Jamie Oliver's Thirty Minute Meals and Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess.

We celebrate the liturgical year. We read about and research the saint of the day. We sometimes get into the history of that time, and the history of the Church. We might read some more. We might look at geography. We might talk about virtues and say some extra prayers.

And we cook. I mean, we have to eat anyway, so why not cook something fitting for the feast.

Saint At the Dinner Table has whole menus planned, information about the saint and why the menu was chosen and also discussion questions or a prayer. Like the prayer of Pope Pius XIi to St Joseph.

I usually simply choose some foods to cook, not the whole menu. Forgiving Trifle for St Josephine Bakhita....the recipe is very forgiving, as was the saint.

Or I look in Jamie's speedy recipe book for culturally related recipes..the speed suits my lifestyle. Fiery Noodles for the Korean martyrs.

Or I read Nigella's gloriously warming, homey baking book for recipes to suit the feast...or the "special day", as in pies for Pi Day ...and yummy bread for St Zita.

Wanting to unschool? You could start with the liturgical year and some good cookbooks. Cook, pray, learn.

Tradition and living experience

2011-03-21T08:20:00.000+11:00

In the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul writes: "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" (2:15)

Traditions.

In the home, little traditions, like praying the Angelus at meal times. Or having a special dinner and table centerpiece for birthdays. Or sharing hot cross buns and Easter eggs on Easter Sunday morning.

In our liturgy, our prayer, holding fast to what has gone before us, those traditions. Praying and meditating on the rosary, as generations before have done. Praying at mass in the Extraordinary Form, participating in the Divine Office, praying the psalms, with the community of saints through the ages

Just as traditions in the home bind us together as a family and with friends , build relationships and memories, make our family life vibrant, so traditions in the Church help us form relationship with Our Lord, with the community of believers past and present. These traditions helps us express and build a vibrant faith, a vibrant relationship with Christ and His Church.

To quote Bishop Kaiilstos Ware, on Orthodox spirituality, but making a point that stands true for us in the West,.."...I wish particularly to underline this need for living experience. To many in the twentieth century....the Orthodox Church seems chiefly remarkable for it's air of antiquity and conservatism....For the Orthodox themselves, however, loyalty to Tradition means not primarily the acceptance of formulae or customs from past generations, but rather the ever-new, personal and direct experience of the Holy Spirit in the present, here and now." ( The Orthodox Way)

Loyalty to Tradition within our present, leading us to direct experience of Christ, through the prayers of the ages and through the sacraments .

Tradition forming our living experience.

And that is why, in many respects, I am traditional in my worship.

Hermione Granger on retreat?

2011-03-17T14:38:00.000+11:00

So what does will your retreat schedule look like? ..asked my non Catholic friend.

Here is a day.

7.30 am Divine Office of Matins and Lauds
8.00. Breakfast
9.15. Conference then Offices of Prime and Terce
10.45. Mass in the Extraordinary Form
12.30 pm Lunch
4.30. Confession
5.00. Sermon and Divine Offices of Sext and None then the Angelus
6.00. Dinner
7.15. Vespers, Holy Hour, private prayer, confession, Benediction
8.45. Compline

And we observe the rule of silence.

"Wisdom enters through love, silence, and mortification . It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others," St John of the Cross

Time to pray, rest, walk, read, think, reflect, connect and write. Because it is in writing that I think and reflect.

And we are praying through and working through some of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola.

Yes, even me, the "late" retreatant.

"Each one must probe the depths of his heart to feel what it is that prevents him from finding God in peace - that is from going straight to Him and cleaving wholly to Him." The spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius...The Three Classes of Man.

And I am resisting the urge to bring my To Do List Mentality to this retreat. Because it is so easy for me to plan my time and my prayer and my walk/exercise and my spiritual journaling and my good resolutions, and write them in my book, and cross off what I have "achieved"... When what I really want to do is listen to Our Lord. That interior mortification.

High achiever, list oriented, organized Hermione Granger twin meets God. On His terms. Not hers.

Should mothers go on retreat?

2011-03-17T00:08:00.006+11:00

I posed this question on Facebook, in a whirlwind of trying-to-get-to-a-retreat myself.

A retreat, a silent retreat, a time away for prayer, for reflection, for adoration of Our Lord. Time to be, simply be. With God. Mindfully. Fully present. To pray, think, write.

But, oh the many, many things a mother must organize, before she even begins the hour drive to the retreat centre. Cars, errands, appointments, phone calls, bills, work, extra work, work meetings, teach Catechism, listen to a friend, work emails, listen to a son read his religion paper, the one he wrote for Homeschool study today, talk about uni assignments and times, chauffeur, sort who is taking Anny to music and who is doing junk mail delivery and who will be home when and will the homeschool son be alone and who needs what car and what about laundry and meals and Kumon and OOSH and ready cash and objections and did you pay the car rego and the rent before you left for the retreat and make sure you pray for this intention, okay?

Those little details in a mother's life.

Should mothers go on retreat, with all the work needed just, simply, for two days away?

Reflecting tonight after vespers and compline, feeling some of that tension and tiredness releasing, being in the quiet presence of Our Lord (Be still, and know that I am God)...I thought...yes.

There are contradictions and mysteries in a mother's life, in a woman's life.

God, Himself, is one of those mysteries .

As the author writes in one of my " retreat reading books"....("The Orthodox Way")... God cannot be grasped by the mind.If he could be grasped, he would not be God. (Evagarius of Pontas). Metanoia, the Greek word for repentance, means, literally, change of mind . In approaching God, we are to change our mind, stripping ourselves of all our habitual ways of thinking. We are to be converted not only in our will but in our intellect. We need to reverse our interior perspective, to stand the pyramid on it's head.

And that is why mothers should go on retreat. No matter how difficult it is to actually get there.

Dress for the occasion

2011-03-15T11:10:00.003+11:00

I may be judgmental but I just think the clothes should be suitable for the occasion.

This is coming from a homeschooling mum who loves short-ish skirts and casual clothes and knee high funky socks and bright coloured stockings!

But you know, very short shorts and low cut strappy tops worn to mass just don't do it for me.

You dress for the occasion.

And thus, when I went to the RCIA Rite of Election in a cathedral, did I wear my short skirt and gold flat sandals, as RCIA Coordinator in my parish and as a sponsor for one of the catechumens?

No, I wore a safe black skirt and wedge heels.

The friar with me wore his habit. Of course. ( And thanks be to God for the orthodoxy of these friars. My family is blessed by their example )

So, tell me, why is it that a few priests stood up for their parishes, and for the elect, wearing not clerical dress, not even the white shirt and black trousers worn by many Australian clerics, but in checked shirts, khaki or cream trousers, sandals?

The priests in clerical dress were noticeable by their dress. We knew they were priests before their names were called.

And the others? If I know enough, as a laywoman , to dress appropriately for liturgy in the cathedral, how come these priests do not?

Don't give me that line about clothes not making the man. If clothes don't make the man, the vocation, then why not just wear some form of clerical dress... No time wasted in deciding what to wear, thoughts given to other areas not clothing, and let people know who you are... A priest, before God, at a solemn occasion.

Harangue me if you like for being judgmental but commonsense tells it like it is.... Don't wear your Paris Hilton lookalike party dress to mass...If you are a priest or religious at least wear clerical dress or habit for solemn occasions in the Church.

Dress appropriately for the occasion.

The virtues of vinegar

2011-03-06T13:45:00.003+11:00

I am a guest blogger at the Australian Catholic Families blog. I am a guest blogger...on vinegar ..and on adult women altar servers. The text ? As follows. But please also visit the blog and check out their articles.

The virtues of vinegar

As the good housewife that I am, I am planning a series of cleaning posts. You know, posts about house cleaning and not about liturgy. Or other deep subjects. Because that's what good housewives do, don't they?

Clean and make coffee.

This first post describes the virtues of vinegar. A non toxic cleaner...so it can be used for a myriad of purposes. I find it helps clean windows and mirrors and even one"s mind via cleaning and scrubbing, when one is lamenting the state of the liturgy in our Church. Wonderful writings from our Holy Father on the importance of liturgy...yet, the practice of public liturgy loses some of it's shine in the grass roots, in the field, in some of our parishes.We need to scrub away our lamentations.

But back to vinegar.Any good housewife knows that it is cheap, non harmful, effective as a cleaner. Any good housewife knows that when cleaning, one should look at the effects of cleaning....use the least intrusive method, follow the instructions carefully, to avoid possible fallout. Would that liturgy always be treated with the same respect....discourage obtrusive extraneous activities and words being added to the liturgy, follow the rubrics carefully, think about the fallout from possible actions (adult women servers may be allowed but their use and encouragement is not compulsory, you know ..what message does it send, to the women, to young men, about vocations to the priesthood? About serving being a privilege and not a right? Do we placate one group temporarily, for the general ill of the Church? What are the ultimate fruits of this action?).

But back to vinegar. Used judiciously in cleaning. To clean and not think Too Much. Because what can a laywoman do, when she feels like weeping at the some of the Liturgical anomalies ? Attend mass only in the Extraordinady Form? Discuss ad infinitum?

Concentrate on her vocation as. wife and mother ? (Yes!)

Ignore that part of her mind that cares deeply about the Church and Her liturgy?

Clean?

Ah, the virtues of vinegar.

Note on adult women altar servers.....Congregation for Divine Worship
Letter on Altar Servers July 27, 2001

"With respect to whether the practice of women serving at the altar would truly be of pastoral advantage in the local pastoral situation, it is perhaps helpful to recall that the non-ordained faithful do not have a right to service at the altar, rather they are capable of being admitted to such service by the Sacred Pastors (cf. Circular Letter to the Presidents of Episcopal Conferences, March 15, 1994, no. 4, cf. also can 228, §1, Interdicasterial Instruction Esslesiae de mysterio, August 15, 1997, no. 4, see Notitiae 34 [1998] 9-42). Therefore, in the event that Your Excellency found it opportune to authorize service of women at the altar, it would remain important to explain clearly to the faithful the nature of this innovation, lest confusion might be introduced, thereby hampering the development of priestly vocations."

The Little Way of Homeschooling

2011-02-27T21:39:00.007+11:00

"You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love at which we do them." St Therese of the Child Jesus.

Unschooling, sharing our lives with our children, living our lives as an open book, is education with love.

We may not be doing great things but we are educating our children, in little ways, about the world, in skills, in the Faith...we are learning ourselves, as parents.

Catholic unschooling. The Little Way of Homeschooling.

And the title of a new book. Thirteen families share their discovery of St Therese's little way . Thirteen families share their discovery of Catholic unschooling.

My family included.

Yes, I am one of the contributors to this book.

Catholic unschooling has shaped and formed me, the kids, our family.

Have you started school yet?

2011-02-18T10:43:00.005+11:00

Have you started school yet ?

I get asked this question at church, by people at work, by other homeschoolers.

I may be a bit grumpy ( WHO, ME??), but, in all honesty, if I hear that question again, instead of answering with a smile and my stock answer, I will just scream.

Or eat peanut M &Ms.

My stock answer, you say?

We don't ever start or stop school, we learn all the time, we read, we do Maths, we write, we study...or we don't..

"Youth is the time to go flashing from one end of the world to the other in both mind and body; to try the manners of different nations; to hear the chimes at midnight; to see sunrise in town and country; to be converted at a revival; to circumnavigate the metaphysics, write halting verses, run a mile to see a fire, and wait all day in the theatre to applaud 'Hernani'." -Robert Louis Stevenson

That describes our homeschooling.

Whch translates today as mum walking in the door from early morning work, one son helping her to prune flowers on her way in, one working on his computer for music stuff, one playing the piano, two conpleting the retro arcade game Golden Axe ( I thought it was Golden Max!), a son now studying Spanish, everyone stopping to say a prayer for a soul, mum suggesting a trip to the shops for errands and fun and talking about Blessed Fra Angelica and someone finding the Faith and Life book with reprints of his paintings, while listening to Gorecki...and music lessons, work, youth group later.

That flashing around, in mind and body. And in discussion.

No screaming. No peanut M&Ms.

Yet.

Live long and prosper

2011-02-16T15:40:00.002+11:00

On the blog A Priest Downunder,, there is a discussion on promoting vocations to the priesthood and to religious life. A discussion prompted by an address by the Holy Father.

A discussion centred on how we, as members of a parish community, as individuals , can encourage vocations to prosper.

" ‘Every Christian community, every member of the Church, needs consciously to feel responsibility for promoting vocations.’ What are we doing in our local area, our parish, our deanery, our school, to promote vocations?"

Last year, our parish women's group devoted each first Thursday and each first Sunday to prayer for vocations.

And that is good.

However, I also think that we need to look at our actions and how these may help to prosper vocations.

There are a number of things I could discuss here but I will, instead , bring up a recent conversation between myself, my sons and a friend.

On why a priest only uses extraordinary ministers rarely, that is to say, in extraordinary circumstances, when needed.

Well, apart from the obvious statement re extraordinary , we talked about valuing and devaluing the role of the priest, of the religious.

You know, if the extraordinary minister (usually a woman ) serves at the time of communion of the faithful, instead of a religious, say, a Brother , who is also present at mass, what message does that send?

If the acolyte cleans the sacred vessels after Holy Communion and holds the relic for veneration and serves at communion, always, what message does that send?

I am not underplaying the role of the laity here. I understand the concept of the priesthood of believers.

However, it remains to be said that over use of laity and under use of religious, especially in the public liturgy of the Church, does tend to devalue the role of priests and religious. Young men in particular are less likely to look towards vocations ... Not because they are not called but because they can serve in the Church, in ministries, in many instances undertaking that which the priest and religious can and should undertake, but without that final commitment.

It seems to me that one way to prosper vocations then, is to fully understand the role of priests and religious in our communities and in the liturgy, in the Church. To fully appreciate and value this role. To fully understand the contribution of lay people.

And to avoid the clericalization of the laity, to paraphrase Pope Benedict XVI.

My year with the saints

2011-02-14T22:58:00.005+11:00

Over time now, I find a rhythm in my year. A liturgical rhythm. I think in terms of feast days...oh, you will be here on December 12? Our Lady of Guadalupe!
This living with the saints has developed gradually...I started by reading about the saints with my kids, then celebrating their feast days, then delving further for my own interest...Was St Therese really as sickly sweet as she seemed? The only way to find out was to read her own words...and. boy, I certainly found out why she is a Doctor of the Church! Strong. Loving. Not sickly sweet.
Living with the saints doesn't mean that I am a saint..no, way too tarnished for that.
It does mean, however, that just as I used to peruse self help books and popular psychology ( Thirty Days to A Better Life; Three Steps to a Super Marriage, Ten Ways Not To Fail As A Mum...) so now I perusue the writings of the saints.
As a booky person, reading and writing are givens for me when faced with life and its dilemmas.
Yet now it is reading of the saints and words by the saints. Asking the saints for prayers.
Living wiih the saints.
So my year with the saints becomes my life with the saints as friends to whom I turn.
Tonight I turned to Mother Teresa.
She was good at dying to self. I am not. I am good at building barriers around myself.
No matter. The saints words give me solace. Give me advice. My own twelve step programme.
My year with the saints is exemplified in my reading with Mother Teresa tonight.
How did she make it through?
With God's grace. And with her own determination and strength of character. Mother Teresa lived the joy that she did not always feel.
"You know how much Jesus loves you...Be good, be holy - Pull yourself up. Don't let the devil have the best from you - You know what Jesus and Mother expect from you - Just be cheerful - Radiate Christ..."
Radiate Christ. Thank you, Mother.

And this is why I live with the saints, remembering them, celebrating their feast days, asking for their intercession.
To learn. To love. To be better.
God knows how much I need it.

Mmm...Niceness

2011-02-13T12:43:00.006+11:00

I am a bit over niceness.

Well, I am over exhortations to be nice..as if this is all the Gospel teaches us..be nice to your neighbour, to your family, smile, never rock the boat.

Did Jesus come to save us just so we can be nice?

Yes, I try to be a nice person. But that is not the whole story of salvation is it? I am here to know, love and serve God on earth so I can be happy with Him in heaven.

So, yes serving God can mean being nice. But it also means a lot more than that.

Sometimes it even means to speak out , with love, but to risk not being nice for the sake of Truth.

And let's be honest...niceness can lead to blandness, to complacency, to thinking I'm alright...to being lukewarm (...He vomits out the lukewarm, isn't there that snippet?..).

As C.S. Lewis said, people who are nice may even be hard to save...their niceness leading to self sufficiency and a complacency of soul...I don't need salvation, I don't need church, I don't need religion, I'm not a sinner, I'm nice.

So if I go to church and hear continual exhortations to be nice, and I am already pretty nice, then I am less likely to look towards Our Lord, to worship Him, to research Church teaching, to challenge myself...I am more likely to think, I am doing okay as I am, aren't I? Well, according to the exhortations in Mass to smile at my neighbour and to phone my mum, I am.

I may be using contraception, I may sleep in and miss Mass many Sundays, I may not understand the sacrament of reconciliation, I may support gay marriages, I may think abortion is fine for others in case of great need...but I am nice because I am friendly, I put money in the collection when I do go to to mass, I bake my cousin cookies, I ask after your health, I like Father and his jokes and the cuppa..when I do go to Mass.

Now, I know I will be criticised for judging here. For not being nice. But you know what? If we are going to talk about being nice, wouldn't it be nice to hear Church teaching explained, encouraged, exhorted? So I know what the Church teaches and why. So I know what I profess to believe, as a Catholic, and why. So my faith permeates every aspect of my life. For the salvation of my soul, and the salvation of others.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Like Nim's Island

2011-02-09T22:15:00.004+11:00

I don't have to go to school, I'm home schooled.

That book, Nim's Island. A great adventure story. Totally believable yet unbelievable.

A bit like unschooling.

Your kids don't go to school?

To many, that is an unbelievable concept.

But the learning is believable. The reading. The discussions. The self discipline.

Self discipline?

Yes, because while we don't have school structure, we do have family and life and work structure.

So, I hear a son say " I will come to play Band Hero, in half an hour, another half hour of writing."

Or I see a son reading Mathematician's Delight during his university holidays.

Or practice the piano, several times a day, without a reminder.

That unbelievable concept of unschooliing, lived out, as Nim lived her life, learning in freedom, in that book and movie.

Personal devotion or public liturgy

2011-02-08T22:04:00.003+11:00

The liturgy of the Church is her public act of worship, her prayers, Holy Mass, the sacraments, the Divine Office.

The liturgy of the Church is something in which the whole Christ participates ( to paraphrase the CCC). The whole Christ...Christ, the Head, with His Body, the Church in heaven and earth.

So, we pray at mass , in the liturgy of the Church, as a whole, together. Yet we also have our personal prayer, our devotional life within and outside the public liturgy,

We concentrate on God and praying with our neighbour; conversely we contemplate Our Lord, personally, with private devotion.

Is there tension between the two? Can we become so entwined in personal devotion that we forget our active participation in the public liturgy of the Church? Or can we be so caught up with community and praying with each other...that we neglect our interior preparation?

Our personal devotions should lead us to the liturgy...and vice verse. No tension. But we are not that lone sinner in the pew..we are part of the Church, gathered to pray. And that knowledge has to affect our participation in Holy Mass, for example. Without making Mass itself all about social interaction.

My participation in Holy Mass, tonight, was not a personal devotion. I was an active participant in the Holy Sacrifice. And my private devotions, preparation, reflection, help my active participation in the prayers , with others, in the mass and St Anthony novena.

No tension. But something good on which to reflect..the role of and relationship between personal devotion and liturgy.

You wore a mantilla to mass?

2011-02-03T00:13:00.002+11:00

Well, yes, tonight I did. A veil. Head covering.

I used to wear a mantilla to mass more often than not.

And then I stopped. For a variety of reasons.

I wear a mantilla nowadays every now and then.

Tonight was a then.

Candlemas. Mass in the Extraordinary Form. And as I climbed out of the car, late, rushed from work, sweating unladylike in the heat, wearing a short skirt and pink pigtails...well, in that one second something nudged me and I reached into the glovebox of the car and grabbed my black mantilla.

Wearing the mantilla in mass reminded me of why I used to enjoy the wearing of the mantilla....I felt like my eyes were forced to concentrate on Our Lord, on Holy Mass...and not on shoes ( my far too often mass preoccupation) ..

Another case of those externals helping the internal..the internal disposition to prayer.

Of course, who knows when I will wear a mantilla again. God forbid that I become a mantilla policeman, making rules for myself, sticks with which to beat myself.

But the mantilla was a reminder, an encouragement tonight.

Sometimes, I deal with sour expressions, usually on other women, when they see me with my veil. I have a method for dealing with this: smile, nod and acknowledge them quietly "hello". The smile you wear underneath the veil goes a long way towards placating those who think the veil is a throwback to some legendary era when women were slaves. Why veil

Back To School...Not!

2011-02-02T23:45:00.002+11:00

This week, when Australian schools and homeschools are "heading back to school" for the 2011 school year...Anthony is not.

This fifteen year old, my last official unschooler, is reading and watching Noel Steatfeild's Ballet Shoes...not buying school shoes.

This unschooler is doing Kumon Maths and looking for his brother's Saxon Physics book, to work through this year...not buying textbooks.

This unschooler is lying on the sofa reading history books and Calvin and Hobbes...not in a classroom reading.

This unschooler is going to Borders, having frozen cokes at McDonald's, working at Kumon, serving at mass, talking to a friar, watering the garden, playing the piano, talking about the liturgical year, going to the movies with brothers and friends, having friends over for games...not travelling to and from school in the sweltering heat.

It's a hard life...but someone has to do it!
Unschool.
Where everything counts.

Custody of the eyes

2011-01-29T14:59:00.003+11:00

Custody of the eyes.

A traditional, even old fashioned term for being careful about what you look at, what you gaze upon, what you see, what you watch.

For we can be formed, we can be tempted, by what we see. And so we should exercise care in this area. As in others.

We should especially practice custody of the eyes during Holy Mass. Looking at Our Lord, praying, following the prayers in our missals, rather than looking at our friends, the priest, the altar servers, the hairstyles, the shoes.... Or is that only me?

So that our focus is Our Lord, our exterior dispositions mirroring our interior dispositions.

If custody of the eyes can seem to be an old fashioned term in our modern life, custody of the eyes in mass can seem to be even more unusual.

It is, however, important. Especially for priests. Because it can be disconcerting to have Father wandering around during his homily, doing the whole Jerry Springer Q & A thing, being a showman, looking at me in the eyes. Straight in the eyes. Repeatedly.

Disconcerting, not confronting. Disconcerting because it takes our eyes and our focus off Our Lord and onto Father and his, well, often, um...platitudes. Makes mass seem less of a sacrifice and less centred on worshipping God and more centred on man... On entertainment... Not on adoring God but almost on adoring ourselves....and Father.

When priests practice custody of the eyes during mass, they are less likely to try to engage we laypeople with looks and jokes and are more likely to celebrate Holy Mass with reverence.. That ars celebrandi. Celebrating Holy Mass in the spirit of truth and beauty...I have been privileged to participate in Holy Masses celebrated this way.

And one could almost say that this can be an argument for Mass celebrated ad orientem as opposed to versus populum.... For when Father faces the people, and does not practice custody of the eyes, laypeople become used to gazing at Father and his expressions and his idiosyncrasies ... At, for example, the Pater Noster. It has become common in many of the masses that I pray at, for Father to look at the congregation and smile and try to include all with a sweeping glance when he is, in fact, addressing Our Lord. And thus, Father's focus ( and subsequently our focus ) should be looking upon Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament . "Deliver us Lord from every evil...."

Remembering custody of the eyes might prevent that other common practice at some of the masses in which I pray... Father walking around at the sign of peace, shaking hands with the congregation in the first few pews, even while we intone the Agnus Dei and while Jesus is on the altar, almost being ignored during the supposed bonhomie of certain, selected parishioners shaking hands with Father.

So what are we to do? We need to encourage a return to the practice of custody of the eyes, especially during mass, for laypeople and priest alike.

Perhaps we laity need to lead the way, by praying during mass, concentrating on Our Lord, not expecting entertainment and not engaging in the whole dialogue talk show style homily. And thanking Father for mass, not for the joke.

And perhaps priests can be encouraged with further formation, to celebrate Holy Mass as Mother Church describes. To think less of themselves and of being a popular showman, less of bottoms on seats, and more of their relationship with God and the salvation of the souls in their care ( to paraphrase the Holy Father's Letter to Seminarians, 2010).

We could all simply begin with a return to the practice of custody of the eyes.

The "that's that" for mothers

2011-01-28T18:57:00.001+11:00

Remembering St Angela Merici. And "Because of Winn Dixie."

St Angela, a Third Order Franciscan, founder of the Ursulines, a strong believer in the value of education. Especially in the education of girls.

The saint believed that problems in the family, disruption in the family unit, led to problems in society. And thus, St Angela wrote, the role of the Christian mother is of great importance. Educate young girls, possible future mothers, and you educate families and society.

St Angela went so far as to say that there was a lack of Christian mothers, dedicated to their vocation.

Sharing this information with my sons, on the feast day of St Angela Merici, I was inspired to look at my life, at my own vocation , my own mothering.

And the words of St John Bosco came to my mind. Love what they, the children love, and they will come to love what you love... Our Lord, the Church, the Faith.

With this is the realism of life with teens and young adults , a tumult of arranging appointments and work and mass and study and housework and friends and technology and family time and living the liturgical year and rituals and rhythms and plan B and O and Z.

The realism of failings and imperfections, especially my imperfections and failings.

But I come back to St John Bosco's emphasis on love. To love my vocation and to love my family. As much as I, with my logic, can love. That imperfect love.

And so I think of the movie and book Because of Winn Dixie, and of little Opal learning to love . And to let go.

Because that is part of mothering. Loving. And letting go.

Gloria: Listen... Opal... you cannot hold onto anything that wants to go. Do you understand what I'm sayin'? You just got to love it while you got it, and that's that.

How do you know I am who I am?

2011-01-25T23:57:00.005+11:00

That almost sounds like a line from a Dr Seuss book. How do you know I am who I am?

Today I bought a classic Little Golden Book. Nurse Nancy. Retro story and illustrations, from 1952.

I was buying books for Kumon and I just couldn't reisist buying this picture book for me.

How do we readers, especially younger readers, of this Little Golden book , know that Nancy is a Nurse?

Because she wears a nurse's uniform. The uniform makes it clear to others that Nancy is a nurse, one to call on for a particular duty, one wth a special vocation or calling from God.

We know who she is, we know of her vocation.

My wedding ring serves a similar role in my life. When I travel for work, it is not unknown for me to go to the bar with other workers, for drinks after conference sessions . We talk. I meet others. We laugh. We have a good time. And I am free to be friendly with members of the opposite sex, and they are free to be friendly with me, to drink and laugh and talk, without misunderstanding, because my wedding ring says it all. Tells of my vocation to marriage and to motherhood.And thus we avoid any ( far fetched, but possible) misunderstanding.

The ring is a visible sign of who I am, of my vocation.

And so today I met a nun. A nun who, unlike Nurse Nancy , unlike this married homeschooling mother, gave no visible indication of her vocation, of being a nun, a religious sister, of being consecrated, of being set apart and living a chaste life for Our Lord.

In fact, Sister wore more makeup, more hair product, more colour than I.

And , frankly, this is misleading. For a nun is espoused to Our Lord, and the wearing of the habit reminds both religious and lay people alike that there is a Heaven, that we are striving for Heaven, that this person has made a commitment, a commitment to Our Lord, to the Church, to a way of life.

A habit is a reminder of who the religious Sister is...first and foremost a nun. A Sister.

And those of you who have seen Elivs Presley's A Change of Habit, that fun sixties movie with Mary Tyler Moore, are aware of the dangers of nuns foregoing the wearing of the habit. No visible

reminder of consecration can build familiarity and forgetfulness of one's role and of one's vocation.

Dr Seuss was right. Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.

If you are you, if I am I, the we should not be afraid to let the world know our vocation.

In the words of Pope John Paul II... The Church must always seek to make her presence visible in everyday life, especially in contemporary culture, which is often very secularized and yet sensitive to the language of signs. In this regard the Church has a right to expect a significant contribution from consecrated persons, called as they are in every situation to bear clear witness that they belong to Christ.

Since the habit is a sign of consecration, poverty and membership in a particular Religious family, I join the Fathers of the Synod in strongly recommending to men and women religious that they wear their proper habit, suitably adapted to the conditions of time and place.(Vita Consecrata )

Homeschooling on a Sunday

2011-01-23T22:27:00.006+11:00

And continuing that homeschooling fashion theme..this is what this homeschool mum wore today, here getting heels on for Sunday Mass, coffee with friends from the parish and family time....

...including making dinner for St Vincent, a Spanish inspired dinner from Saints at the Dinner Table.

Figuratively speaking

2011-01-23T11:35:00.004+11:00

The reading at mass. About Our Lord calling the apostles to their vocation , and they left their nets to follow Him.

It was mentioned that the nets were figurative nets , that is to say, not real fishing nets but nets of hatred, unforgiveness, selfishness. The kind of nets in which we humans become ensnared.

Well, no. Yes, we humans do become ensnared in these kinds of nets and perhaps the disciples were experiencing these human problems. But the nets were real nets. These were real fishermen, called to leave their fisherman work and follow Christ.

As we are called, to follow Christ.

And if we are talking about nets, well, how about leaving behind the net of sloppy liturgy? How about celebrating Holy Mass as the rubrics describe, so that priest and faithful alike are given opportunity to be Christ-centred, to receive the Eucharist with reflection, to be in communion with Our Lord and thus follow Him in our vocations.

Because if the liturgy, the sacred arts, are not important why has the Church devoted her energy, her resources , her time, her priests and religious, to ensuring the perfection of the Divine Liturgy, of her public worship, if not to give God due worship and to help the formation and beliefs and lives of the faithful?

Today in homeschooling fashion...

2011-01-22T17:55:00.005+11:00

I found a lovely blog the other day. A week in pictures . Of long skirts every day. Of how this homeschooler goes about her busy week, looks gorgeous and feminine, and never wears jeans.

Now, I am not a member of the no jeans long skirt homeschooler club. I do wear skirts more than jeans and rarely wear long skirts. And I don't look gorgeous. But I thought it would be fun to do homeschooler mums and clothing posts.

So this is today, clothing for mass, appointments, grocery shopping. And dinner at the beach. On a hot Saturday.

And so...

2011-01-21T18:31:00.006+11:00

I'm off to do unschooling.

Do unschooling, I hear you say? Is unschooling something you do or something you live?

I am not sure, having unschooled forever, ever since I read Teach Your Own, as a young mum of (then) three, with occasional forays into doing school like Charlotte Mason or that classical model. Well, even after all these years of unschoolng, I am not sure what it is.

Pretty weird, huh? Pretty unschool-ish?

All I know is that we unschool. We learn, live our life. We inspire, we sometimes require. We achieve educational outcomes. We achieve life.

And so, I'm off to do unschooling. Having talked about St Fabian and liturgy ( lex orandi, lex credendi), having read about St Sebastion and celebrations in Kerala, India ( hey, we met a priest this week, one who grew up in Kerala) , having looked at the saints book while making and drinking tea and seeing St Agnes ( horrible painting chosen for the saint, a martyr, a virgin)..having done all these things, we are unschooling by cooking to celebrate the liturgical year.

Curry for St Sebastian.

And toasted cinnamon donuts with ice cream for St Agnes.

Strewing nooks.

2011-01-19T16:44:00.007+11:00

Strewing. As in leaving around inspiring materials, new arrangements, anything to spark an interest, and exposure, to new ideas and activities, or to re-kindle an interest in old things, old pastimes, old interests. For ourselves, our children, our friends.

An integral part of unschooling.

Lisa has pix on her blog, of her recent unschooling strewing. And so I thought..yes. I'll play!

Here are some of our recent strewing nooks.

Nooks?, you say. A small corner, alcove, or recess, a hidden or secluded spot, a retreat. .

Even the definition sounds cosy.

The cookbook nook...our three new cookbooks on display, for perusing, for reading for cooking!

Our new journaling nook, complete with journals and gel pens. Feel like writing, anyone? The old fashioned way? No Tumblr, Facebook, or Blogger (although this nook exists on the computer tables in the dining room).

The "Look at me! Interesting books to read!"nook..on display in the sitting room/pool room. Who can resist a peek?

And the tea and saints nook, an alcove in the kitchen. As one makes tea ( a recurrent pastime in this house), as one washes up, one sees the saint for the day..and glorious artwork.

The Daybook. 2011 Version.

2011-01-18T23:35:00.005+11:00

I haven't done a daybook for awhile. Not since May 2010 . in fact. .

Where I was thinking about..." this article by Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, on the dangers of pornography. Excellent article. "The claim that pornography "enriches" relationships mocks those whose marriages and families it has destroyed."

Mmm.

I have been flicking through the posts of The Daybook blog..and thought..yes. my blog is due...for another post...and another daybook.

One-liners.

If Possible.

Outside my window... Dark, almost midnight.

I am thinking... I'm going to be soo tired tomorrow!

I am thankful for... Facebook. Texts. Blogs. Hey, I know the dangers. But I see the connections, too,

I am wearing... A short black dress. What I wore to mass tonight . Gold sandals. Minimalist jewellery.

I am remembering... Friends. And how I have learned to let myself be vulnerable. Not the really Bad Thing I thought it would be.

I am going... To not worry about getting everything done on tomorrow's To Do list. It's not possible. Dear God, please help me do what is the most important. ( And urgent).

I am currently reading... "Winning After Losing...Keep Off the Weight You've Lost - Forever." by Stacey Halprin

I am hoping... For more time to read. And write.

On my mind... Mother Teresa. Read her journals.

Noticing that... ~We are back into the habit of doing our Kumon Maths. Daily. Regularly.

Pondering these words... Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus. (Mother Teresa)

In the kitchen... Leftovers. Planning a hot rum cheesecake for St Francis de Sales. Loving my tea and coffee and saints nook.

Around the house... Searching a rhythm for Daily Clean..amidst all my have-tos.

One of my favourite things ..Right now? Two things, okay? My Jillian Michaels workouts. And my Breviary.

Picture thought I am Sharing...The chocolate fondue with fresh fruit, I made this on Sunday.....

Revisiting Words. Revisiting C.S Lewis

2011-01-09T11:52:00.010+11:00

Revisiting words. Words or mottoes or themes for the year.

I've been doing this since the late 1990s. Choosing a word, a phrase, a motto, for the year. In place of New Year's resolutions. To guide. To make me think. To set the tone. For the year. For me. For my life.

Sometimes, the word just comes to me. Like last year's word. Coping.

Sometimes the word(s) need a lot of thought and prayer. Like the year I had People First....I can be task oriented, you know! Or ~ Like A Sunflower.

Explain that one!

Sometimes, too, the word has a special meaning for me at that time, reflecting a current interest or current reading or current experience. Like the year I took one of Billy Blank's ( Taebo workout guy) maxims and made it my own - Every Day Above Ground Is A Blessed Day. And ~Never Give Up. Or a verse from Scripture - "I will walk within my house with a perfect heart."

Before New Years, I went out for coffee with three other homeschool mums. One mum has known me a long time, over the years, through newsletter exchanges and then the internet. We finally met in real life when I moved to Sydney in 2005.

And she asked - "What is your word for the coming year? Do you still do those words?"

The others looked at me quizzically and thus I explained these words. The importance of words in our lives, especially for a booky, writing sort of person like me. The power of words. The influence of words.

And how words can shape our thoughts and thus our lives.

So, yes, I still do those words.

Do they make my life better? Do they make me better? Do they make me a better Christian, wife, mother, worker, homeschooler, friend, person?

I don't know. And, no, not on their own. I can, however, only think of how, perhaps, who I am may be worse, may be the real, yucky inside me, if I didn't have these words to guide me...in prayer...in my life.

I am reminded of C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, where he writes of "Nice People or New Man." We do not know the state of others' souls; we do not know what we are without God so, even if we are not-always-so-nice when we know God, it does not mean that we should give up. That Christianity fails. That we shouldn't strive to be nice. We should. With His Grace. Using tools like my Words. And offering it all in prayer.

"But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world - and might even be more difficult to save. For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of a man. "

So, those words, chosen in prayer each year, written into my diary each year, offered in prayer each year, help make me nicer. Heaven as a goal, not niceness. But a little bit of niceness goes a long way! That new kind of man, with the grace of God and the help of the sacraments and that word.

That word, the one I see when I open my diary each day and each week and check what-I-have-to-do. What things the family has to do. All under the banner of the word(s) for the year.

So, you ask, what is the word for this year.

I mentioned it in another post.

A name. A phrase. Influenced by my pre-Christmas reading.

Mother Teresa. In other words, dying to self. And serving with a smile. Regardless.

From Mere Christianity again..." But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away blindly so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self...will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him."

This thought tempers our words, our resolutions, doesn't it? And thus my word for this year is a reminder that it is not really about the words or about me. It is about Him.

Mother Teresa.

And the inspiring words for the year that my homeschooling friends have chosen and shared, over that coffee, also remind me that it is not about us.

Quite liberating.