As I said here, I went on a Christmas shopping spree this past Monday. It was not very fruitful. It seems that even more so than in years past THERE IS NOTHING OUT THERE! I came home frustrated and tired and did exactly what I should have done in the first place, sat in front of my computer and ordered everything online. I did so well that my credit card company called this morning to verify all the activity!
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We participated in the amnesty program at our library this week. For a limited time they were erasing all library fines in exchange for donations of baking items (you know, flour, oil, etc). I probably donated more than I had in fines, but it still felt good to imagine I was getting a break!
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A friend tipped me off to a good deal over at Sophia Institute Press. This is a list of books that they are selling at only $2 a piece. I have my eye on "Keep It Simple" - it looks like a good read right about now. I also ordered "Saint Worship and the Worship of Mary" to help us with the neighboring Lutheran Pastor. Hopefully it is an easy enough read to just pass along to him.
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Speaking of the Lutheran Pastor, our friend had a meeting with him yesterday. They had some discussion and it seems as if the Pastor will be correcting his error on the Immaculate Conception, however everything else that our friend said was met with "Well, where is that in the Bible?" There are three Catholic homeschooling families in the neighborhood so maybe we'll invite the Pastor and his wife over for some dialogue. We meet every Monday night to pray the rosary together, maybe that would be a good place to start!
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I just loved that story about the Girard family. After I posted about it, I was looking around the website some more and came across some newspaper articles. What disturbed me about them were the comments that came after the articles. Why is it that people have to be critical about even really nice things? Why do they get so hung up about things that don't have anything to do with them? It was so disappointing to read people complaining about this family getting a new home. On a better note, however, the episode about the Girard's and their new home will air on February 8th at 8 eastern/7 central. I'll try to remind everyone about it as the date approaches.
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You just have to love Illinois politics. Chicago is famous for its Democratic political machine and now, not only do we have one former Governor in jail, but the current one is potentially on his way for allegedly trying to sell Barak Obama's senate seat. It will be interesting to see just how this goes.
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Sorry to end on a disturbing note but I cannot believe the audacity of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. It seems as if they have been offering gift certificates that you can purchase for their "services". How ironic is that to give someone you love a gift card for an abortion or contraception on the very feast day that celebrates birth! Lord Jesus, have mercy on us!
Advent is a time for preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus as well as to anticipate His second coming. During this time we need to look into our hearts and see what it is that is keeping us from totally embracing Christ - and then get rid of it (whatever that it might be).
For many people (and I include myself in this group!), one big thing that might be keeping them from giving all of themselves to Jesus is selfishness. What a hard thing to root out of our souls! It is so hard to fight against all the time. This time of year it seems especially difficult to fight off selfishness because we are so tired and so stressed preparing for the holidays.
Well, the best way I know of to fight off selfishness is to do something nice for someone else! Last night I came across an incredible example of this in action - an entire community getting together to give to a family that has had one incredibly horrific year.
You might remember the Girard family. Their dad, Thom, and oldest son, Marc, died this past summer in a swimming accident. This was after they lost their home to a fire and had been living in a trailer. This past week they became the recipients of a brand new home built through the TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". This is what it's all about, folks: hundreds of people donating their time, money and services, working in rainy and freezing conditions, to give an incredible home to a very deserving family. Take the time to check out this house and follow the progress through the blog. See how God takes care of us? I know a new house will never make up for losses this family has been through, but what a comfort to know that they now have a house to live in.
While checking this all out, I found myself overwhelmed when I thought of the gift of themselves that all these people gave and at the same time I felt bad for the grumbling I've done the past two weeks over minor inconveniences. I'm so glad that God puts these examples in our face so that we can gain from them, too. Please join me in praising God for His goodness and generosity and I pray that we can all learn from this great example.
My husband and I came across video footage of last Sunday's service from a nearby Lutheran church. It seems that the pastor chose to spend some time discussing Mary. Was this a coincidence or was it planned, seeing as how Monday was the feast of the Immaculate Conception?
Before the pastor got to what was his "main" point about Mary, he took a few minutes to talk about those people who worship Mary (aka Catholics). The sad thing about all of this was that what he said was downright wrong. For instance, he said that the Immaculate Conception meant that Mary was born of a virgin. He also said that Mary ascended into Heaven. Each time he tried to make a point, he used very faulty, misleading or downright wrong information.
Most people who witness sermons like this will take what the pastor says to heart. If they've heard it before, it will reinforce ideas about Catholics that they already have. If they haven't heard it before, how many of them will question what they've heard? How many will look into this in more detail? Probably not many. However, since this has been brought to our attention, we feel a responsibility to help this pastor see that he is wrong about a lot of things he said. It is one thing to state a doctrine of the Catholic faith and then say you disagree with it. It is another to incorrectly state Catholic doctrine and then attempt to explain why it is wrong. Witnessing something like this sermon helps to back up what Bishop Fulton Sheen said, that many people don't hate the Catholic Church, they just hate what they think is the Catholic Church (although by stating that, I'm not meaning to imply that this pastor was spewing hatred).
So, homeschooling lesson for today: How do we explain to people like this pastor that his sermon contained a lot of wrong information? Did you know that Luther was actually very Marian? How can we use that fact to show this pastor that he was even contradicting the founder of his own faith? Sounds like a great assignment for a high school student, doesn't it? I know it got my husband going; he's digging through books and pamphlets as I type! What a great way to strengthen your own faith!
Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception! What a great day to celebrate Mary and make her a part of our Advent. Advent really should have a Marion flavor to it since it was Mary's fiat that brings us Christ. I came across a quote from St. Francis about Mary that I wanted to share: "Mary is the celestial staircase for arriving more rapidly at Christian perfection." What a blessing the Church gives us by having two Marian feast days in one week!
I found a great article about how to connect the Feast of the Immaculate Conception with Advent. It would make a good teaching moment with the kids. Unfortunately, I can't do it with my children today because it is the ONLY day between now and Christmas that I have free to do my Christmas shopping. Pray that I survive this all day shopping adventure!
It's "7 Quick Takes Friday" over at Conversion Diary so I'm joining in again! Enjoy.
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Most of my "quick takes" today have links to other things, so here goes. Last week I stumbled across something really neat for Advent. It is put together by the family that runs the Holy Heroes website. When you sign up for their Advent Adventures you will receive an email each day of Advent (except Sundays) that will have a short video presentation, an audio clip of a decade of the rosary as well as other links to Advent puzzles, coloring pages and a little quiz. It is a great idea and very easy to use. We've managed to keep up with most of the pages this week. You can join any time in Advent - so it's not too late. There's even links to the days you've missed.
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Speaking of Advent, has anyone else noticed that the penitential side of Advent seems to be coming out more in recent years? Sometimes I think the trials we face during Advent are worse than in Lent! Oh well, as the saying goes, "Just offer it up". There certainly is enough to offer it up for!
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Last night Catholic author Regina Doman was on EWTN's "Life on the Rock". Congratulations to Regina on a fun and informative interview. We enjoyed listening to it through the internet since we don't have cable! Listening to the show reminded me that her books would make excellent Christmas gifts for those teens on your list that are so hard to buy for. And not just the girls, either...Check them out and help support a great family!
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Speaking of Christmas gifts - if you're looking for ideas for grab bags or co-workers or those hard to buy for adults in your family, consider buying some Mystic Monk coffee. It is very good coffee and buying it helps out the Monks in Wyoming who sell it (and me, too!) Click on this little logo here and check out their Christmas gift packs.
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Another great Christmas gift idea I found will help you with the girls in your life. I came across a lady in Pennsylvania that has been making and selling Catholic jewelry for a number of years. She has a wide variety of styles - all with a Catholic flavor. How cool is that? Click the banner below to check out her work and support another great Catholic business (and me, too. Thanks)!
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Alright, enough selling. How about a laugh? There's a country song by Taylor Swift called "Love Story" that we have all been enjoying lately. Naturally, when you listen to a song over and over, you tend to remember the words and sing parts of it throughout the day. (If you aren't familiar with the song and would like to be, you can check it out here). The song is about a boy and a girl named Romeo and Juliet who, as you probably guessed, are in love but Romeo has been told by Juliet's father to "stay away from Juliet". The other night, our five year old asked her sister to sing her that song about the father who told Romeo to stay away from Joliet. If you aren't from around Northern Illinois, you won't necessarily know that Joliet is a city in IL that is famous for its many prisons - think Blues Brothers and Stateville Maximum Security Prison. Maybe we could make our own version of the song!
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Alright, one last laugh. My sister-in-law, who has a son who would do something like this, sent this video to me this week. It's pretty cute!
As you know it is the first week of Advent. It seems as soon as this time of year hits, our schedule goes crazy, which makes it hard to homeschool, keep the spirit of Advent and still plan for Christmas. Unfortunately, homeschooling usually ends up with the short end of the stick.
Despite our schedule I still wanted to find some educational things to do to make up for the lack of book work. Earlier in the week we took a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry. Most of my kids had never been there and my husband and I hadn't been there for years. What a great museum! If you live in the area or are planning on visiting Chicago anytime soon, this would be my #1 museum recommendation.
Why did I like it so much? Well, let me first say that there are two types of museum goers. My uncle terms one kind the "Slowski's". You know them. They are the kind that like to go through museums and read every word that is written, even signs like "Employees must wash hands before returning to work" . If it's a sign, they'll stop and read it. This makes it impossible to get through the entire museum. In case you hadn't guessed, my uncle and I do not fall into this category.
Those of you like us like to go through a museum the same way you shop; walking along at a reasonable pace, browsing the displays, stopping when something really catches your attention. This method allows you to learn a little about a lot of things because you can make it through more exhibits this way. The Slowski's only can learn a lot about a little because they never leave the first room!
Anyhow, I liked this museum because there was a lot of cool things to see, but not a lot that we had to stop and read. We went on a few tours and listened to people talk, which is great for auditory learners. My son came home with a boat-load of information on submarines and coal mines. We were all able to push buttons and touch things and really learn a lot. There were even a few things to read, so the Slowski group was happy, too!
About half way through the museum I remembered that I had a camera on my cell phone - see, all that time I spent last week came in handy. The pictures aren't that clear (come on, I'm supposed to hold that little thing still long enough to take a clear picture? with NO flash???) but I thought I'd share some of what we saw.
During December the museum has their Christmas trees from around the world display. This is the center tree: You can't really see my daughter, but check out the cool German U-505 Submarine. This was a great tour!
They had a great section on transportation. Here is a picture of a big steam engine they have there:
And this is an awesome railroad system they had set up. My son was mesmerized. If you can, check out this museum in January when they have a whole bunch of free days!
Yesterday an anonymous commenter commented that in a few weeks the novelty of my new cell phone will wear off and my life will get back to normal. I agree. Really, due to the hecticness of life, I've already been forced to forgo playing with my phone so that I can take care of may daily duty. I got to thinking, though, that my point wasn't to whine or complain about being overcome by my cell phone. What I was really wondering was why in the world these technological devices cause us to "waste" so much of our time in the first place.
For example, when I got a new mixer, I certainly didn't feel this compelling urge to spend all my time baking. Likewise, when we got a "car that was new to us", it didn't make me want to drive around constantly (although it seems that that is what I do anyhow!). Why is it that when we get a new computer program, we become completely engrossed in trying to figure it out? Why are we willing to waste so much time setting up all our appointments and contacts on a new computer program or PDA when the calendar on our desk and the old-fashioned address book have worked so well for us before?
The only thing I can connect it to is like when my son gets a new "Thomas the Tank Engine" movie and he wants to watch it multiple times a day until he has memorized every word and gesture of every train! Is it something in us that remembers how we were obsessive like this when we were three years old? Since it wouldn't be appropriate to sit down and watch Thomas for hours on end, do we relive that feeling through our electronic or hand-held devices?
My husband's take on this is that the attraction comes from the fascination over how something so small can do so much. But, he's a guy, and guy's tend to think like that. Doesn't work for me. I think it must be the latent three year old in me coming out!
