False Piety

At the February Family Formation parent talk, Father brought up the term FALSE PIETY. In his warning about false piety, he could have been speaking directly to me!

Had he heard past conversations of mine??

I like to have people over to our home, and I especially like to have priests and other religious visit our home. In fact, I think it's important to show our kids that priests and religious are normal people who have the same interests we might have ... they might enjoy sports, a game of cards, dessert, fishing, board games, quilting, a home-cooked meal, an occaisional beer, hunting, or whatever!

But do I invite priests, nuns or other religious to our home?

What is different is their vocation. Yes, our kids can see the priest on Sunday or at daily Mass; they can see the nuns minister to the elderly at the local nursing home, but how will our kids really know what a religious vocation is and entails unless we invite priests, nuns and other religious into our home?

No, Father hadn't heard my past conversations; and yes, I do invite priests and other religious to our home, but not very often. It has nothing to do with my house - my house is clean enough for a drop-by visitor on most days and on planned visits I'm happy with it's appearance. What stops me is that I know they are soooooo busy.

Visits with Father are booked months in advance; he has to be too busy for our family, right? Other people have more pressing needs and questions than I do. The priest couldn't possibly have time for me and my family; could he?? And if he did have a bit of time, wouldn't he appreciate not having to be anywhere?

See where I'm headed? That's false piety, exactly. And Father called me on it (privately) on that Wednesday night.

So, I got up my nerve and I waited - in line! - to speak to him Wednesday night. When it was my turn, I hesitantly asked if he'd be willing to visit our home, even though it's 100 miles out of town; and then I patiently waited for his reply. The answer was "Yes".

I knew the moment I asked what his answer would be; it was already written on his face. Now, I just need to make that phone call to schedule the actual visit. I have to call; he's expecting it!

Water Color Fun

On Tuesday, the kids had their first 4-H meeting/project. It was more an art demonstration and was lead by a local art instructor at the high school. I was impressed by his organization and by the simple techniques he taught the kids to use - the ages ranged from 6yo to about 13yo. He set up a demonstration table and had regular art paper (though he admitted that heavier water color paper would be ideal) taped to large press boards for each child. The kids brought their own water colors, but he laid out the larger brushes, rulers, pencils and water containers at each individual station.

The kids learned about setting the horizon, the effects of starting with wet or dry paper, mixing colors, and stippling. He showed them how to create a sky, trees, leaves, and grass.

Dash and Angelina participated and had a great time. They'd been wanting to meet kids in the area for quite some time. It's not easy when you live in a rural area and do not attend the public school. For me, it was nice to finally meet some 'local' moms.

Here are the kids' creations...

Dash's features a tree and hill with shadow. He didn't wait for the paper to dry, so his trees are less defined.

Angelina mixed colors for her grass and used stippling to create leaves. She painted her trees on dry paper, so they are more defined.

Wordless Wednesday by Angelina

St. Blaise

Growing up, my family never missed getting the Blessing of St. Blaise. Although his feast day is February 3, we usually received the blessing on the Sunday following his feast. When we lived in town and could attend St. Mary's Cathedral, the blessing was given on the feast day and we made an effort to go to daily mass for this blessing. We'll miss the blessing on his feast day this year because the local priest is out of town and I'm not able to drive an hour to daily mass (or the 100 miles to St. Mary's). Maybe the visiting priest will give us the blessing this coming Sunday?? I know it's considered optional nowadays, but I feel like I'm missing something important anyway - I especially miss St. Mary's on days like this. So, in honor of St. Blaise, we'll forgo dessert today (and I'll forgo my Dr. Pepper).

For more information about Saint Blaise, check here or here.

The Blessing of St. Blaise (given by the priest)
“Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from ailments of the throat and from every other evil. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

St. Blaise Prayer

O glorious Saint Blaise, who by thy martyrdom has left to the Church a precious witness to the faith, obtain for us the grace to preserve within ourselves this divine gift, and to defend, without human respect, both by word and example, the truth of that same faith, which is so wickedly attacked and slandered in these our times. Thou who didst miraculously cure a little child when it was at the point of death by reason of an affliction of the throat, grant us thy powerful protection in like misfortunes; and, above all, obtain for us the grace of Christian mortification together with a faithful observance of the precepts of the Church, which may keep us from offending Almighty God. Amen.

*Until researching, I didn't realize there were different ways to spell his name: Blaise, Blase, Blasius. While most of the information is the same regardless of spelling, I used the spelling I remember from childhood!

The Results

Well, the crop judgers arrived home from their first-ever contest excited to show me their results. Turns out they were the only junior team at the contest, so they actually won awards! Plaques for high team and high individual are awarded; they brought home both. That was quite a shock to their dad and me, who expected this to be a 'get your feet wet' and experience the nerves, timeline, and attention to detail that is part of a crop judging contest.

High Junior Team Plaque

True to his name, Dash raced through the different crop classes and was the first to be done in almost every class (according to his dad). He earned an individual blue ribbon.

Dash with his blue individual recognition

He admitted that his sister, Angelina, bettered him ...

While Dash was visiting the Golden Acres grandparents (my parents) the previous week and unable to study crop judging materials, Angelina studied every day. On Thursday and Friday, she had individual attention from Grandma and Grandpa Green Acres (my husband's parents), who were impressed with her good attention skills.

In fact, during the contest, she noticed that one set of sheets was a different color from our practice sheets! It threw her, but not for long. Angelina came home with an individual plaque.

Angelina with the High Individual Plaque

By scores, there is much room for improvement. However, each can increase their scores quite easily. Cards must be filled out correctly and completely - easier to remember after participating in a contest. The next meet is Little I at NDSU. This will be a much bigger meet; I hope they've been inspired to work and learn.

Our Daily Schedule

I REALLY like lists. Order makes me feel calm and I am a better mom when there is organization around me. I do not thrive in chaos and my family can attest to the misery that has been inflicted when there is too much mess.

So when it comes to our school day, it's on a schedule. However, flexibility is a part of our days, too, because that's one of the reasons we homeschool. Including flexibility means we can take a family vacation in October or the kids can visit grandparents for a whole week during the winter or early spring - schoolwork can (and usually does) come along. My mom and MIL have no problem with schoolwork coming along for the visit, although I do try to streamline the lessons.

7:00-8:00a Everyone is up and does the following: eats breakfast, makes their own bed (except for Graham, who gets help from me or Zeke), gets dressed and takes care of personal hygiene. Eric & I usually get up earlier; but with the weather as it is, I've been sleeping in a little more!

8:00a-12:00p These are our set school hours. Afternoon hours are scheduled for some subjects, but the kids work hard and are generally done by dinner time. If there are days when that isn't reality, they go back to the schoolroom and work in the afternoon.

12:00-12:30p This is usually when we eat dinner. Clean-up by me or one of the older kids follows.

12:30-1:00p I try to remember to ask the kids to do an afternoon chore. It usually consists of sweeping or vacuuming floors, washing mirrors or doors, unloading or loading the dishwasher, or helping with laundry. Snow shoveling in the winter and lawn/garden work in the summer are added, too.

1:00-5:00p The afternoon hours are free - free for laundry, errands, reading, baking, games, meal preparation, computer time, projects, outdoor play, & travel preparation (we travel to Fargo every Friday for meetings, quilting, lessons and homeschool group activities). Since moving to the farm, we don't have many 'during the day' obligations! It's really strange. I'd like to start going to adoration again; and attending a daily mass at least once per week would be nice.

6:00-6:30p Our usual supper time falls around this time. One of the kids usually helps clean up the kitchen.

6:45-8:00p The kids might have time to play a quick game after supper, but usually they get ready for bed. Most nights, Eric will read aloud to the kids for a full hour. On quite a few nights, they convince him to read longer! Then, it's prayers and bed. The older two like to stay up and read until about 9p.

For Eric and I, the evening hours are ours to spend as needed. Sometimes it's a TV show or movie, but mostly it's catching up on work, correspondence and correction of schoolwork.