a dream

I found this on another blog, but it really hit me where it hurts.



In my dream I saw an absolutely beautiful wrapped present. (My favorite kind of present to get...I totally appreciate a good gift wrap!) However, as I looked at that present, complete with a perfectly tied wire ribbon, the following thoughts flooded my mind:

My home was like that beautifully wrapped present....lovely to look at and wonderful to make the box pleasing. HOWEVER, it became very clear to me that I needed to remember that the thing that made the present of value wasn't the nice ribbon or the expensive paper, or even the box. The treasure was the actual GIFT housed within the box. The contents of the box was what mattered! The bow would be untied and the paper eventually cast aside....but the CONTENTS of the box...MY FAMILY....was what mattered!

Two Inspirational Poems

Splinters From The Cross

Little headaches, little heartaches,
Little griefs of every day,
Little trials and vexations,
How they throng around our way!

One great cross, immense and heavy,
So it seems to our weak will,
Might be born with resignation,
But these many small ones kill.

Yet all life is formed of small things,
Little leaves make up the trees,
Many tiny drops of water
Blending, make the mighty seas.

Let us not then by impatience
Mar the beauty of the whole,
But the love of Jesus bear all
In the silence of our soul.

Asking Him for grace sufficient
To sustain us through each loss,
And to treasure each small offering
As a splinter from His Cross.

The Tapestry

My life is but a weaving between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily.
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.

Not till the loom is silent, and shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the skillful Weaver's hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

Favorite Subjects.

I bet you thought I was going to write about the twins. They are usually my favorite subjects. Or Regina. No, I'm talking about my favorite subject in school. Homeschool, that is.

Math.

I don't remember it being my favorite subject when I was going through school, although I did get decent grades and managed to make it all the way through a statistics course in college. But somewhere along the last 12 years, it has become my favorite subject. I love teaching it to the younger kids, and I love re-learning it with the older kids.

Brian recently went through a few chapters in Algebra with the slope-intercept formula. That was all new to me. I must have daydreamed or dozed through it in Geometry class as a sophomore, but after a few tries I had it down even better than he did.

Now we are working with equations, and it's sort of pathetic how much I am enjoying myself. *There are 39 coins made up of pennies and dimes. The total value is $1.83. Write two equations, one for the number of coins, and one for the value. *Find three consecutive integers such that five times the first integer plus twice the second is equal to six times the third.

He worked in his book, I worked on the pink sheet. I won.

I love teaching/learning Latin, and grammar.

I love sharing my knowledge of Spanish with the kids, although we're doing Latin as our foreign language instead.

I love sharing classical music, poetry and art, and teaching them to draw.

Teaching them to read can be tedious, but I love the moment of discovery when they find they can actually READ.

I love learning history, though slogging through textbooks can be a drag.

I hate teaching spelling. Too tedious for me. I was one of those natural spellers, and I can't relate well to someone to whom it doesn't come as easily.

I love science, especially the higher sciences.

I love teaching the kids how to write in cursive. I'm neutral on teaching them how to print. I hate teaching them how to write compositions. This is probably because I'm so opinionated that if they're not writing the way I would do it, I sort of automatically think it's wrong.

I hate craft projects.

I love teaching them to touch-type.

I love showing them their way around a kitchen.

In general, I just love those "light-bulb" moments when I have found just the right way to explain something to them so that it makes perfect sense. I love when their enthusiasm for a subject finally measures up to my own.

Sometimes - quite often, actually - I get so discouraged with homeschooling that I just want to give up. Making this list has been therapeutic in that regard, reinforcing some of my reasons for wanting to homeschool in the first place.

Stations of the Cross, Closing

The Resurrection of Jesus
We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You
because by your holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices that they might go and anoint Jesus. Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had just risen, they came to the tomb. They were saying to one another, "Who will roll the stone back from the entrance of the tomb for us?" for it was very large. But looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled back, and upon entering the tomb they were amazed to see a young man sitting at the right side and clothed in a white robe. He said to them, "Do not be terrified. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here. Behold the place where they laid him." (Mk. 16, 1 to 6)

Let us pray: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day he arose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

Stations of the Cross, Fourteenth Station

Fourteenth Station

Jesus is laid in the tomb

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you,
because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world

Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus, and wrapping it in a clean linen cloth he laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of rock. Then he rolled a large stone agains the entrance of the tomb and departed. (Mt. 27, 59 and 60)

Reflection: I will praise you, O Lord, for you drew me clear and did not let my enemies rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. O lord, you brought me up from the lower world; you preserved me from among those going down into the pit. Sing praise to the Lord, you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger lasts but a moment; his good will is for a lifetime. At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with dawn comes rejoicing. (Ps. 29, 2 to 6)

Let us pray: Almighty and eternal God, on the edge of sadness when all seemed lost, You restored to us teh Saviour we thought defeated and conquered. Help us, we beg You, so to empty ourselves of self concern that we might see your hand in every failure and your victory in every defeat. These things we ask in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns forever with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Click on the picture for a link to an excellently-done corresponding page on the Catholic Stations of the Cross.