In the Heart of my Home

Gingrich to Convert

Laugh with me this morning:
When one of my children saw the headline "Gingrich to Convert" at National Catholic Register, she said, "To WHAT? Liberalism?"

I convulsed in giggles. And she said, "No, seriously, what is he converting to?"

My children see Newt Gingrich at church all the time. Last Christmas Eve, they were at the Basilica way before time for midnight Mass. They bumped into (literally) a familiar silver-haired gentleman in the cafeteria. He chatted with them for a few minutes and they wished him a Merry Christmas. Then, Stephen turned to Christian and said, "Don't I know him from somewhere?"
Nicky (rather loudly) replied, "Yeah, he's always on Sean Hannity! He must be important if he knows Sean Hannity."
Mr. Gingrich smiled.

Newt Gingrich always sits in about the same place in the Basilica. His wife sings in the choir, and so my children all assumed he already was Catholic.Imagining that Newt Gingrich is Catholic is not a far reach for my family and we look forward to going to the Lord's Table with him (maybe Easter?).

Imagining him converting to liberalism is another thing entirely;-)

Time Warp?

Karoline refuses to leave the Colonial studies for the Pioneer studies.She spends all day and night totally in character. And she insists we call her Felicity. Felicity's best friend is Elizabeth.

Karoline: I need to talk with Elizabeth.
Mary Beth:  What do you need to tell her?
Karoline: I need to talk to her a LOT! I'll just e-mail her now!

Nicholas on the Perils of Childbirth

I was chatting with Nick yesterday on the way to confession and he was wondering aloud if he could possibly get all seven sacraments. I reminded him that it's tough to get both Matrimony and Holy Orders:

Me: Remember Ryan's grandpa? He was ordained a priest after his wife died. So, he got both. It can happen, but it's pretty rare.

Nick: So, I could do that. But, I probably won't get Annointing of the Sick, huh? I don't get really sick.

Me: You never know. I've been annointed five times. Three when I had cancer and twice before Sarah was born.

Nick: That was a good idea. You could have died in childbirth.

Me (growing concerned and wondering which big kid offered Nicky too much information): How do you know that?

Nick: Star Wars.

Me: Oh...

Nick: Luke's and Leia's mom died in childbirth.

Me: Well, that's pretty rare these days. Women just don't die in childbirth often at all. You know that, right?

Nick: Of course. Your husband would have to go to the Dark Side and then strangle you...
That's not gonna happen.

Whew. Glad to hear it.

SOCIAL Studies-- When You're Social......

by Mary Beth

...So today we had to transfer our assignments for the week into our planners and at the top there are blocks that say "math, geography, language, etc," and there is one that says "social studies." Considering that we have a lot of history this year I wondered why Stephen's block that said social studies was blank; so I asked:

"Super, you do know what social studies is right?"

"Yeah," he answered

"Then tell me what it is." I said

"It's when we study with the Ashwells! I mean it is SOCIAL studies!" he answered.

Morning Giggle

This morning, after an early snuggle and a reading of My Dad, John McCain, Nicholas said, "He sounds like a great guy and he would be a good president. But to be fair and balanced, shouldn't we read My Dad, Barack Obama?"

More Help Than I Can Handle

Me: Who re-started the washing machine?

Child: Me. I thought you hit "pause" and then forgot about it, so I got it going again.

Me: No...I was soaking diapers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Me: Who added pasta to the boiling water?

Child: Me. I figured we were having spaghetti for dinner and you just forgot to put it in.

Me: No...we were having tortellini. And we were waiting for Daddy to call and let me know he was nearly home. I guess now we're having spaghetti. Lukewarm spaghetti.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Me: Who pushed the plunger down on the French Press?

Child: Me. I thought you'd walked away and forgotten to finish making coffee.

Me: No, I set a timer. Four minutes. No more, no less. It's only been 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

Here's the question: Why do my children always assume I forgot??

She's got everyone wrapped around her little finger

Karoline gives Nicholas and Stephen pedicures. And they let her.

I wonder where she gets that?

Katie, upon hearing we are going blueberry picking:  Oh my! I think I'll wear my blue and white Easter dress. That is the right shade of blue to look just perfect in the blueberry picking pictures, don't you think?

Katie, upon hearing that there's no way I'm letting her wear her Easter dress to pick blueberries: Oh, dear, do I have an orange dress? That would complement blue.

When I suggest blue jeans and an old shirt: Great idea! A red shirt; red is good with blue. And a blue ribbon for my hair. Karoline is lucky; she's all set with those blueberry eyes. I wish I had blueberry eyes...

I Guess I Should Have Been More Specific...

I left Katie in charge of Karoline yesterday when I stepped just outside the back door to grill dinner. Five minutes later, I came back inside to discover my baby and this table "decorated" with red Sharpie.

Me: Katie! I asked you to watch her while I grilled the hamburgers!

Katie: Oh, and I did, Mommy.  I know exactly how she did it.

Off to buy a Magic Eraser (for the table, not the baby).

It's not like it's the first time.

I never thought I'd laugh about this

The other day, Katie (5)  stumbled across a book I'd used to prepare Mary Beth to be at Karoline's birth. Katie  got quite an eyeful.

Katie: I am never having babies. That is totally gross how they come out!

Me: But Katie, you want to have ten kids, how's that going to work if you don't want to have babies?

Katie: I don't know, but I'll figure out another way. I'm not having babies that way.

and then a long pause

Katie: You know, if I were a baby I would refuse to come out like that. I'd put my foot down and make them figure out another way.

Katie was a footling breech born by urgent c-section to avoid cord prolapse. She literally put her foot down and made us figure out a different way.

So, how did that work for you, Katie?

I think I need to read this post more carefully.

Gracie came running upstairs to get Mary Beth. Mary Beth ran downstairs with Gracie and then came up to get Paddy. Hmmm...mom's suspicious.
Downstairs, we find Katie under the kitchen table with egg yolk all over her bottom.

She wanted to hatch the egg and have a chicken. So, she sat on it.

Of course.

Little Big Man

Nicholas played his first travel soccer game at 8:00 this morning. It was 35 degrees outside. He's playing on Stephen's team, which is technically two years older than his age group. He begged to do this and he mostly holds his own. But he's still such a little guy. Actually, he's a huge guy, as big as the average nine -year-old and much bigger than Michael was at ten. Nevertheless, he's my baby boy. At halftime, they were up 3-2. Nicky played goalkeeper the second half. They lost 8-4. That's six goals scored on my baby, ladies. I wanted to cry. But I didn't.

Nick got in the car after the game and I tried as hard as I could to channel a good soccer mom--any good soccer mom.

Me: I'm so proud of you, Nick.
Nicky(raising his eyebrows): Why?
Me: Because you didn't cry out there. It was hard and you got discouraged but you didn't cry.
Nicky: Well, tears did get in my eyes, but I didn't let them out.
Me: That's because you're a big man. I think if I'd been in that goal, I would have cried. But you didn't because you are a great, big, brave man.
Nicky: Mom, you might think I'm a big man, but really, in that goal, I was a little boy. It was a huge goal.

It was.

Huge.

Well, yeah, I guess there's that

Reviewing with Nicholas before his First Confession:

Me: OK, Nick, now tell me what you need to make a good confession.

Nick: Well...first...you need to sin.

I LOVE Little Boys!

We were discussing the liturgical year today and Nicky said, "Mom, wait, last Sunday was Ordinary Time? The day before yesterday?"

I replied in the affirmative.

Nicky's eyes got very, very wide, "There was nothing ordinary about that day!"

Nicky's Train of Thought

Nicky was obviously envious as we made Stephen's birthday breakfast this morning. I reminded him that we were celebrating Stephen being born and he was to be especially grateful that God put Stephen here to be his best friend before Nicky was born. He agreed that was "pretty good." Then,

"But he wins everything we play. He beats me every single time. Except when Paddy's the ref and then Paddy cheats for me and I win. But cheaters never win (HT: Dan Bean) and that's why I hate the Patriots. And I hope that Eli beats their pants off because Peyton probably always beat him when they were little. And they probably always acted like in that Sportscenter commercial. Except I know Eli won the Double Stuff Racing League. And I could probably win that. Can we buy Oreos today?"

Sure. Why not?

Overheard...

Mary Beth and a friend talking in the backseat on the way home:

Friend: So, I don't like Patrick or anything but, what kind of girl does he like?

Mary Beth (in all seriousness): Well, I guess she'd have to be pretty and then...she'd have to know how to manage a household.

I knew if I kept my mouth shut long enough, his brothers would do the job

Nicky and Stephen had some huge altercation in the basement involving a basketball or a soccer ball or some such thing that they aren't supposed to play in the house. There was much wailing and they both came up to find me. Michael was with me.

Michael (using his best "tough guy" voice") : Stephen, stop that wailing; you're being a girl.
Stephen: I'm not being a girl! You're being a girl!
Michael: At least I don't going crying to Mom every time someone bumps me.
Stephen: At least I don't wear her earrings!

And the point goes to Stephen. I'm still maintaining my earring silence.

Apparently, there is some confusion here;-)

Nicholas: I wonder how we're going to get across the river in the van.

Stephen: We could take a ferry.

Nicholas: Fairies aren't real.

Stephen: Yes, they are.

Nicholas: No, they're not!

Stephen: Yes, they are. Mom, tell him ferries are real! There's a ferry in Leesburg.

Mom explains carefully, reminding Nicholas of our favorite ferry.

Nicholas (grumpily): First, they're not real. Now, they're real. Y'all can't make up your minds.

I think we need to draw a Ferry Fairy.

So far he's loving Waldorf-inspired Math

Stephen: Mom, what are we going to do today?

Me: Well, this morning we're going to make math gnomes.

Stephen: Math gnomes? What do math gnomes do?

Me: Oh, after we make them, they'll add, subtract, multiply and divide.

Stephen: Cool! Spend one morning making gnomes and they do our math for us! Gotta love those little dudes.

Indeed.

Our gnomes are on the lefthand sidebar. I'll add  pages to the album as we play with numbers this year. Right now, I'm off to read Oak Meadow 1 and Christopherus First Grade Syllabus for inspiration so that I can figure out for myself a really good number gnomes story.

Be sure to visit the Jacobite Rose for the Toymaking Fair.

While I appreciate the beauty, the materials and some of the methods of Waldorf education, I am not a follower of Rudolf Steiner, his educational philosophy, or his religion. I am a practicing Catholic who is very clear in teaching the faith to her children. Please see this post for any further explanation of incorporating methods or materials that might also appear in Waldorf schools into your home. Take inspiration from what is good and what in in harmony with the true faith and leave the rest. If you can't discern, then leave it all alone.

So, we're all adjusting...

Nicky, when faced with a whole box of drawing lessons and some brand new crayons and a stack of paper: I used to love art. Now I hate art. I want to do art with Michael!

Maybe I should break out the watercolors; Michael was never very keen on color.