Michaelmas 2010

Today is Michaelmas, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. We celebrated by reading about St. Michael and making devil's food cake cupcakes with swords in them to remember St. Michael's victory over the dragon.

Marky, like most Catholic boys, has an affinity for St. Michael. It's the warrior's spirit he's drawn to- he has pictures of St. George and St. Michael in his room. I went to hang the small St. Michael picture on the wall and he protested and wanted it by his bed right by his pillow so he could hold it and look at in the night and feel safe.

And now Marky will recite the famous prayer to St. Michael:

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who wander throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen

Whatever is true, noble, pure, lovely, admirable....

I mean, what can I say? You see the pictures.

Today I went to the McWane Science Center with the kids and went to the store to look for a cool science toy for a birthday party we are going to on Friday night. Almost every book in the store was inappropriate. Tons of "Grossology" and disgusting things everywhere. Even boxes of disgusting experiments to make more disgusting things. Iwas shocked! I had already noticed this "it's okay to be gross" phenomena in the bookstores with the below FAMOUS (how is this possible) book series:



When did this become okay? Don't even one person comment and tell me that despite the grossness of the above things, they are really endearing or educational. I do not care.

They are gross. They are a waste of our children's beautiful minds. We decided long ago that we would edit the things that come into our children's minds (as best we can) to TRY to instill in them a sense of what is truly beautiful and what is not. Because it is an OBJECTIVE truth- there is BEAUTIFUL and there is UGLY and we have to know the difference.

Today I saw a Wall Street Journal article asking How can we raise boys who READ? Because apparently reading is not something boys today can do with any pleasure- unless it's disgusting. But whose fault is that? The little boys or their educators/parents? Here's a quote from the article:

Education was once understood as training for freedom. Not merely the transmission of information, education entailed the formation of manners and taste. Aristotle thought we should be raised "so as both to delight in and to be pained by the things that we ought; this is the right education."

"Plato before him," writes C. S. Lewis, "had said the same. The little human animal will not at first have the right responses. It must be trained to feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and hateful."

The article concludes, and I from experience agree, that the answer to getting boys to find beauty in Literature is stop making Literature compete with video games/computer games/television. The books will lose! I know this in my own life, I'd much rather veg out and watch Dancing with the Stars than plough through the Abolition of Man. We have to let our kids be BORED. Boredom is the impetus to reading. Marky began reading Around the World in 80 Days today because he had nothing better to do. We have no video games, he's only allowed to play chess on the computer once in a while and the TV is off during the day. What to do....what to do....get lost in a book. Get completely enthralled in a book- take-it-to-lunch-and-can't-put-it down enthralled in a book.

I've explained this idea of filling our minds with beauty to our kids. When Marky was little and we would be in a bookstore, he would hold up a book and say, "Mommy is this beautiful?" Beatrix Potter- yes. Junie B. Jones and the Stupid, Stinky School Bus- no. Yes, I assume that my kids, like all kids, would think gross, sassy stuff was as funny as the next kid, but I'm the parent. I'm in charge of filling their minds with beauty and give them a right understanding of what is appropriate in civilized society. Trust me, I'm preaching to myself here, because I will still find myself filling my mind with worthless things. I'm just kind of surprised that we've gotten to the place where we ON PURPOSE dumb down and debase our CHILDREN'S books in the name of education and "getting them to read".

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Phil 4:8

Our Playhouse

I've been putting this post off b/c I'm almost embarassed to show you what we have in our backyard. Presenting: the wacky playhouse. Apparently the people who owned the house before us owned a yuppy toystore and spared no expense when it came to toys for their kids. And this was here when we moved in. Please note I would NEVER have purchased this for my kids- although I think it's awesome.

That's a REAL hollowed out tree log and apparently they brought this thing in on a crane (according to the neighboors). I don't know if you can see but there are bearhead accents all over the place and they had a bearhead bench that we got rid of. There are all types of things hanging off it like chains, old irons, horseshoes, lanterns. It's two levels- the top level has a treehouse with a trap door in the bottom that has a ladder to the lower cottage. There's a swirly slide off the top as well.

The bottom is the cutest little gingerbread cottage.

All summer my kids completely IGNORED this thing. Can you imagine? I thought they would go crazy and love it, but a neighboor had gotten stung by a wasp there once and they were convinced it was full of wasps (which it wasn't). When my parents were here a few weeks ago we cleaned it up really well and the weather also cooled off and they are FINALLY playing in it.... a little (still not nearly as much as I would have at their age).

The owners also left this tire horse swing which again, the kids really don't play on very much.

And they left a sandboat. I'm so glad the old owners left this stuff behind and hopefully my kids will come to enjoy it as much as they love the trampoline. Anyway, I wanted to put this on my blog for scrapbooking purposes since I don't know how long it will all last. :)

Falling for Fall...FINALLY!

Yes, Tucker, the leaves are falling! How do you feel? HAPPY! Me, too!

Everybody get outside and help rake some leaves!

I said, rake! Okay- at least you can "help" me plant some mums.

I cannot tell you how happy I am to see the arrival of my favorite season! All my senses are happy in Autumn- I hear the crackling leaves and the wind and crackling fires, I smell the candles, the baking, the bonfires, I feel the cool wind and see all the beautiful leaves and cardigans and scarves (there I said it- I love fall fashion).

Mainly- I love that my kids play OUTSIDE. They were in the yard almost three hours this afternoon. They just played and played. Marky raked, and the others jumped in his piles.

While I made supper, little Tucker stayed in the side yard and meandered in the woods and found the swing.

Thank you, Lord, for the seasons! Happy Fall, ya'll!

A hi from little fella!

Sugar and spice and everything nice....

Why, Julia, aren't you dressed up special today? You must be going somewhere very exciting to be dressed as such a lovely flower fairy princess.

Where could this vine-covered arbor lead too? Run, little fairy princess, and find out!

Why it's a party! A tea party- a PRINCESS tea party at the governor's mansion! How wonderful! One of your favorite friends it turning three and she's having a lovely day for you to enjoy!

You find your seat by the pretty bag with your name on it- all the girls have bags that "match" them with hair and eye color! As you sit down you notice that there are a lot of extra chairs. I wonder why so many chairs?

The birthday girl wonders too. Is there a surprise? Wait- who's coming under the arbor? Could it be- YES- it's real-life princesses: Snow White, Belle, Ariel, Aurora (sleeping beauty) and Cinderella! How wonderful!

The princesses have come to sit with you all! They each go around the table and tell their story and describe their castles and adventures. It's all just too wonderful! You get to eat your wonderful treats of tea sandwiches in the shapes of a coach, glass slipper, and crown and drink pink lemonade in real tea cups!

And now time for the cakes!

Three years- three cakes! How beautiful!

Make a wish (although I think it already came true)!













Have you ever seen a party like this? The birthday girl was thrilled! (Julia, you were afraid at first, but grew to like them).

After the tea party and cake you and all the "little" princesses got to jump and slide on the amazing jump castle that looked like a princess castle!

After that it was time for a pizza party and night swimming in the Alabama pool! What a wonderful memory! I put you in your pajamas after the party and you were asleep before we even hit the interstate- hope you remember your day as a princess, sweet girl!