Merry Christmas

Horatio: R.I.P.

Horatio seemed to be a little sick last week. He flopped to rest wherever we put him down, and he showed an unusual preference for staying inside. He quietly went outside on Monday (or was it Tuesday?) and could not be found later. When a cat disappears, we worry. Many a tragedy has happened to our cat population, and our hopes for his safety faded as each day finished without an appearance.

Today, as the young ones were in the attic, Horatio was found. Curled up as if asleep, but cold to the touch, the mystery was solved and his death confirmed. We are very sad.

He was a handsome, grateful cat and we will miss his hugeness on the fence, his luxurious body curled up in warm corners, and his playful pouncing on leaves in the backyard.

Rest in peace, Horatio.


A silly cat on a happier day

Overheard around the breakfast table

"I am not going to ANY doctor's offices this week. None. Not even if I grow green fur on my face."

I guess my mother is a little tired of going to the doctor.

Soundtrack for the season

David Lanz Christmas Eve: Piano Solos

We don't have the nicest piano in the world, but you would never know it when my daughter is playing these songs. Heavenly!

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen

My favorite set of Jane Austen's work:


The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen

and

The Jane Austen info page

HT: Wittingshire

Winter Reading Challenge

I am quite sure that I am biting off w-a-y more than I can chew and read this season, but I also know that by making the list (and checking it twice) I will read far more than if I cry "Uncle!" and decide I am too busy for intentional reading. The winter season will include many car hours logged as I transport my three oldest children to speech tournaments to the south and the north of us. Perhaps I can find some in an audio version, providing myself with the brain food I need to be alert enough for the long hours as solo pilot for my speech students.

Biographies:

Jane Austen by Elizabeth Jenkins

Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton

Essays:

Standing by Words: Essays by Wendell Berry
Christian Reflections by C.S. Lewis
The Whimsical Christian by Dorothy Sayers



The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Volume 20 (Includes Christendom in Dublin, Irish Impressions, A Short History of England and more)


Fiction


The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

About A Boy by Nick Hornby


Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson


Non-fiction

The 36-hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for Persons with Alzheimer Disease, Related Dementing Illnesses, and Memory Loss in Later Life by Mace and Rabins

ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life by Judith Kolberg and Kathleen Nadeau

Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher

Daily readings (not books to finish this season):



The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class by David Kidder, Noah Oppenheim

The Oxford Book of English Verse Edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch

Many thanks to Seasonal Soundings for inspiring me to keep planning and reading!

Signs of aging

Not my mom this time. Signs of aging are coming a little closer to home. The University of California at Davis magazine arrived today, sporting photographs of new faculty members. One photograph jumped out at my husband, Davis alumni that he is. Her smile was a blast from the past, from his miserable first year of teaching. World Studies, fourth period, to be exact. There may have been an ocean view from that classroom, but it was a rough patch for ol' Mr. First Year. This young woman was one of two sympathetic smiles in a sea of unhappy and unresponsive faces. She had teaching in mind even then.

But old enough to teach at the university level?

Well, you start counting and that "young woman" is 35 years old now.

Yikes.

Once again, time is passing faster than I think.

Autumn becomes winter

The autumn reading challenge is done, but my list sure isn't. Having three children preparing speeches for a tournament that is only three weeks away is my excuse; my brain is ready for a round of Sudoku just before bed, and that is it. I must resolve to change that for the winter, though. I function much better when my mind is full of new ideas. Soon to come: The Winter Reading Challenge (beautiful winter picture, too, right, Janie?)

Done

The Small Rain by Madeleine L'’Engle
The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
King Lear by Shakespeare
A Long Shadow: An Insprector Ian Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd
The Dark Assassin (William Monk novel) by Anne Perry
Original Sin by P.D. James
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer
Three Short Novels by Wendell Berry
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Begun

Jane Austen by Elizabeth Jenkins
Standing by Words: Essays by Wendell Berry
Christian Reflections by C.S. Lewis
The Whimsical Christian by Dorothy Sayers

Still to come

Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
The 36-hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for Persons with Alzheimer Disease, Related Dementing Illnesses, and Memory Loss in Later Life by Mace and Rabins

and more...but not today.

An invitation for the Crib Chick

The HMS Surprise at the San Diego Maritime Academy

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World ranks high on our family's list of Top Ten Favorite Movies of All Time. There is, however, one family that takes our obsession to a whole different level. The Crib Chick has written many a blog post about the movie, providing often humorous comparisons between her marriage and the relationship of the captain and the doctor in M&C. So, who was on my mind when I clicked to purchase tickets to the San Diego Maritime Academy, home of the HMS Surprise? Ms. Crib Chick, of course. Can you make it to San Diego in January, Jill? Pretty please?!? I know it's a long way from home, but think of the fun we could have!

Not seen the movie? Come on! What are you waiting for? Click that picture, and amazon.com will happily deliver it to your doorstep. Think it was a terribly boring movie? No comprendo. Maybe if you tried again? The music, the quotes, the idea of being fit for command; what's not to like?

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel!
Redeem thy captive Israel,
That into exile drear is gone
Far from the face of God's dear Son

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come thou Dayspring bright!
Pour on our souls thy healing light;
Dispel the long night's lingering gloom,
And pierce the shadow of the tomb.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Lord of David's key!
The royal door flung wide and free;
Safeguard for us the heavenward road,
And bar the way to death's abode.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

from O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by T.A. Lacey

Advent musings

We are human and finite, and thus cannot live perpetually in a sense of expectation, or in a continuous Advent. We are distracted by many things. Our spiritual awareness waxes and wanes in intensity. If an attitude of expectancy, or an inclination to poignant spiritual experiences, is cultivated by conscious effort of our own, we will suffer severe limitations. Such effort totally misses the mark. We may get lifted up in moments of tenderness but will be cast down in hours of dryness. The swing of emotions is natural to us, and some are more subject to extremes than others. We mustn't despair about this. But we should be aware of cultivating religious emotions under the delusion that these are the workings of the Holy Spirit. Such emotions are unstable; they risk getting in the way of our communion with God.

It is here that we need to see why it was necessary for Christ to come to the earth. God has come to us because we, by our own power of soul, by our own emotions, even the noblest and most sublime, can never attain redemption, can never regain communion with God.

True expectancy, the waiting that is genuine and from the heart, is brought about by the coming of the Holy Spirit, by God coming to us, and not by our own devices.

My response: PHEW!

From Yielding to God by Philip Britts, found in:


Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas

The next box from Amazon will include:

Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher

The Ballad of the White Horse
by G.K. Chesterton



Handel's Messiah with the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Little Women Soundtrack


Bleak House

It's blog anniversary time again!

Two terrific years of blogging.....

Bunches of new friends and acquaintances made through email
(yes, a shameless plug for emails from readers).....

And 365 days of memories recorded for our family.

I'm having such a nice time, I think I will just keep going.

Happy Anniversary to A Circle of Quiet!

This man's idea of a great birthday

A new mug (with complimentary caramel latte)

Late afternoon at the local cafe. Yes, with papers to grade, but serenaded by good jazz, seated in the perfect chair, and accompanied by his wife when the paper grading boredom threatened to roll in.

Gift number one: Young Men in Spats by P.G. Wodehouse
with bookmark courtesy of the ever-generous and blogging again Mom Bob (aka: Patty in WA)

Moonlit walk

and an unphotographed, vicious game of UNO (or TRIO as we call it -- Team Uno.)

Happy 45th birthday to the man of my dreams!

A year later...

As the mentor and coordinator for our home education efforts, there is much I am called on to teach. Some topics are easy, others deepen the furrow between my eyebrows, but school subjects can be taught with words and numbers and hard work. There are, however, lessons that life, and God Himself, must teach. Time, that ancient tool of healing in the hand of God, can only work its magic as the days, weeks and months go by. As a 47-year-old, I have seen my broken heart heal, misunderstandings become deeper understanding. I have seen the dark moments of my life in the context of what they are working in my character, working together for what is best for myself or others. There are still many things in life that make no sense, but time has helped me weave even those into my soul, lessening their power to confuse or distract me. All of this brings confidence when the next round of darkness sets in.

Over the last year I have seen that the knowledge of time's power and God's purposes, the deep down heart knowledge, cannot be handed over like a math worksheet or a literature assignment. It has to drip slowly, like pure water through perfectly ground French roast coffee beans, to make a rich result. When our friends moved away last December, and some of my children were aching with sadness, I could not convince them that it was going to be okay. I could listen, I could share my own experiences, I could pray, I could provide routines to bring comfort in the midst of change, but I could not convince anyone of what God alone, through time, was busy doing.

It's been a year now...a whole year. The lessons have made their way into the deep recesses of each of our hearts, and we know that all is well, all is for the best. It's not easy stretching our heart strings, but we've seen that they continue to stay strong as they stretch. The happy faces and strong friendships across the miles are a testimony to hearts that are learning.

I have outsourced subjects before (math and piano come to mind immediately) but this is outsourcing on a whole new level. The learning and grappling and embracing of God's ways must happen in the hearts of my children, and this I cannot teach them. I would not pretend to be able to teach advanced piano theory, or advanced mathematics, and so I must not pretend that I can teach the eternal lessons that God alone must work in their souls. I need to step aside, do the work that I am called to do, and let the Master of our souls do His work without my interference. He can be trusted, and I can rest.

(Written with The Autumn Rain in mind...especially this post.)

Advent musings

The Shaking Reality of Advent by Alfred Delp

Condemned as a traitor for his opposition to Hitler, Father Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest, wrote this piece in a Nazi prison shortly before he was hanged in 1945.

Let us then live in today’s Advent, for it is the time of promise. To eyes that do not see, it still seems that the final dice are being cast down in the these valleys, on these battlefields, in those camps and prisons and bomb shelters. Those who are awake can sense the working of the other powers and can await the coming of their hour.

Space is still filled with the noise of destruction and annihilation, the shouts of self-assurance and arrogance, the weeping of despair and helplessness. But just beyond the horizon the eternal realities stand silent in their age-old longing. There shines on us the first mild light of the radiant fulfillment to come. From afar sound the first notes as of pipes and singing boys, not yet discernible as a song or a melody. It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold. But it is happening. This is today.

Found in:


Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas

Poplollies and Bellibones

Poplollies and Bellibones: A Celebration of Lost Words
by Susan Kelz Sperling

Found at a used book seller this summer, this is another perfect source of entertainment and education on the restroom bookshelves.

Autumn's finale

C.S. Lewis

If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.

--C. S. Lewis, "Learning in War-Time", The Weight of Glory

HT: Schola Classical Tutorial

For some of us: The Perfect Gift

An Amazon.com Gift Certificate

Two things caught MY eye when I saw this amazon.com selection:

The price: $5.00 to $5,000.00 -- just seeing all those zeros (and translating them into Wodehouse Collector's editions and other favorite volumes) makes one's heart race. I guess it could race in one way if you are the recipient and an entirely different way if you are the giver of such a generous sum.

and

Available: Immediately -- isn't immediately a LOVELY word?

Not wanting to be a difficult person during the holidays, my desire is to simplify the season for any generous yet perplexed gift givers in my life. All in the name of Holiday Cheer, Good Will to All, Ho Ho Ho, etc. etc.