For my two readers

Did you ever have an evening, in which you received bad news, went to bed thinking about it, woke up, again, it was the first thought in your head, but were sure it must have been a bad dream, then realized it wasn't. That was my night. I'm fine, before you ask, but a friend received bad news, and I feel terribly for him.

I can't go into details, but please pray for my friend, and that he may be submissive and patient with God's will for him. When we are in the midst of trial, it is so difficult to see what God could possibly be preparing us for, or teaching us. It takes tremendous amounts of faith and obedience to see the potential good. I know this friend has both, but that does not make it any less difficult to understand why.

I love it when they get it!

It seems like a rare occasion that my children make a connection between historical events, but when they do, Ahh! I'm sure they get it more than they let me know, after all, mom might get a big ego or get prideful if she knew she was a decent teacher.

Today we studied Hitler's rise to power. I asked the question, "Who did Hitler Blame?" and got a good response, " The Jews, just like in the Story of Ester". We studied Ester yesterday. They saw the connection, they got it.

My greatest hope in spending far too much time dwelling on history has been that my children will see how it does repeat itself. My greater hope, is that they will become active citizens to prevent some of that repetition in their lifetime. One connection down, a million more to go.

I love homeschooling!

In defense of Teletubbies

I'm not sure how the subject came up, but yesterday I ended up arguing in defense of Teletubbies. Let me start by saying I hate children's programming. It is dribble and visual twaddle at best. That said, I have realized in the 11 years that I have been at times forced to watch PBS kids, it has gotten drastically worse.

I was raised on a healthy diet of Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street, both my Parents worked, and while my dad, who worked nights, napped, I got to watch TV. It was not much, but the poor guy needed an hour in the morning to rest while my mom was at work. I was not watching endless hours a day, and he felt like he could trust Mr. Rogers to keep me out of trouble.

Fast Forward 30 years. I try to monitor TV, PBS is generally allowed when there is TV viewing allowed. However, the quality is awful. Back to Teletubbies, sure it was bad, but at least they didn't try to indoctrinate, to promote a certain agenda. It was like a bad fairy tale. Cute, distracting, showing kids playing nicely and at best teaching a few good character traits.

The "new" shows all have something to push. Take for example a newer show, Sid the Science Kid( my eldest calls it Sid the stupid kid, but that is not polite!). Hmm, Science is good, right? Sure, if that is what the show was about. Science is the package for a few other views. The school class is full of racial stereotypes, and one big cliche. The show has promoted the H1N1 vaccinate, CFL light-bulbs and hybrid cars. Okay, why does my 5 year old need to know about these other than to yell at me that our Honda is not a hybrid?!

I'll take silly colored aliens over preachy issue-laden science any day!

Another Unlikely Good Word on Religious Life

By this point, most people are aware that Oprah had the Sister of Mary Mother of the Eucharist on her show. All reviews I have heard are that it was good and made the life of the sister look wonderful. This week, on Chicago Public radio's Eight Forty Eight show, writer Judy Valente talked about life in the Benedictine Monastery. She ended her story with

"With a dwindling number of men and women willing to enter monastic life, it’s easy to dismiss monasteries as hopeless throwbacks to the past. But for me, monasteries offer a window to the future …a future our world so desperately needs. One that stresses community over competition, service over self-aggrandizement, quietude over chatter, and simplicity over constant consumption. It’s what keeps me coming back again and again to these incredible Benedictine women, and to this monastery tucked away on a hill."

Not a bad way to say it, "a future our world so desperately needs"

I'm back!

I finally got a new computer with a letter "t", thus making it easier to write. I hope to make Lent a good time to do this, how are you preparing for Lent, I'd love to hear ideas.