I've been tagged...

...by Allison of Totus Tuus Family & Catholic Homeschooling. It is a book meme, and here are the rules:

Pass this on to 5 blogging friends. Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56. Write the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that.

Okay, here we go..

It is Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ.

"Now, after centuries had whirled away into space, there appeared in the wilderness this great man leading the same kind of life as Elijah.

In all countries, when the head of a government wishes to visit the head of another government, he sends messengers "before his face." So John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of Christ, to announce the conditions of His reign and government. John, despite the prophecies that were made about him, disclaimed that he was the Messiah and claimed that he was only:

"I am a voice crying out in the wilderness." --John 1:23"

And there you have it. How very appropriate for this first Sunday of Advent!

Now, whom shall I tag. It is not as though I have a heap of blogging buddies (a small select few of impeccable taste!). Alright, I tag:

1) Old Woman
2) Dandelionmom
3) Danette
4) Milehimama
5) Kimberly

Contentment

The past few days have been really lovely. I wish I could remember to take photos in the midst of it all, as so many of my favorite bloggers do, but instead I tend to sit back and breathe it all in.

Thanksgiving was, as usual, at my house. I enjoy this, even with the extra cleaning before and after as I feel I am much more relaxed in my own digs. My kids can run around and I don't have to worry about them ruining someone else's house!

My mother, my sister and brother-in-law and their three boys were here, and we were pleased that one of our dear Fathers of Mercy was able to stop by for a while, although he had to return to his community for dinner. It was a delightful afternoon.

And yesterday we hit the road to make the 90 minute trip to the home of our best friends in Kentucky. Their humble, cozy home is tucked in the woods, and the kitchen, dining table and "living room" are all in one open area. The kids played in the barn and in the woods, and Cindy and I sat by the wonderful, big fireplace her husband built and I knit and she nursed baby Abbie. Later, after supper, a number of kids ages 16 down to 3 sat at the table playing cards noisily, while we adults sat by the fire watching the toddlers play on the floor before us. It was wonderful, and it made me wish I lived next door to my friends so that we could do this regularly. Maybe it wouldn't happen if we lived so near.

A few hours after dark we piled our happy but worn-out kids into the van and exchanged many hugs and shouted our goodbyes back and forth, then we headed back home, praying the rosary as the little ones dozed off.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

The Advent Conspiracy

(with thanks to milehimama, from whom I stole this)

Una's opinion of Brussels Sprouts

Una is not at all a fussy eater. She will eat almost anything, even things she is not particularly thrilled about. But she draws the line at Brussels sprouts.

"They taste like mini-skunk cabbages dipped in caterpillar spit."

Y'know, in my humble opinion, anyone who knows what caterpillar spit tastes like ought not have a problem with Brussels sprouts...

My nephew, Matthew

He likes to dress up more than anything. He looks rather Dickensian here, don't you think? The young Nicholas Nickelby, perhaps?

Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin

Collect: O God who wast pleased that on this day the blessed Mary ever a virgin, the dwelling place of the Holy Ghost, should be presented in the temple; grant, we beseech Thee, that through her prayers we may be found worthy to be presented in the temple of Thy glory. Through our Lord...in the unity of the same. Amen.

Keeping toddlers busy

Well, if you can't find something constructive for them to do, you can always win with suggesting something destructive. Like poking foam egg cartons with dull pencils. It will take them about 15 minutes to turn it into a thousand bits of Styrofoam. It will take you another 10 to pick up the larger bits and then pull out the vacuum to get the microscopic particles. But there are those desperate times that require desperate measures...

This is really very un-Montessori, unless, of course, you let the toddlers do the vacuuming.

Another beautiful dawn

It's only 21 degrees here this morning, but what a great sunrise!

I have a knack for slapstick...

...and my new Canon MP240 printer is having the last laugh.

Twice now I have hit the "Print" button without remembering that if the printer output tray is not open, it will drop down suddenly. And knock over whatever beverage I have stupidly placed in front of it. The first time it was a tall glass of water which tipped into my lap. It was hot chai today, and I caught it before it hit me, but so violent was my "save" that I have spent the past 10 minutes wiping up all the tea that got onto and into my printer...

*sigh* No humility without humiliation...

Must be a case of the Seurat Pox

Yes, Una has been infected with pointillism!

St. Elizabeth of Hungary Spinning for the Poor

By Marianne Stokes.

Sunday is still the high point of my week

Yes, despite the chaos involved in getting the five young ones up, fed, dressed and out the door; in spite of having to pack the play clothes for after Mass (and at this time of year that means not just a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, but also sweaters, jackets, hats and gloves); in spite of the hour-long drive, it is still something I begin to crave by midweek. I am envious of those who can get to a daily Mass.

Today was wonderful. We went to the Latin Mass at Our Lady of the Caves, and I went to confession. Dominic was lovely and decided to nap during the Mass. Afterward there was a little fundraiser luncheon and with pony rides for the kids, and although it was cold, the sun came out and it wasn't too bad. I feel refreshed. Which is what I need before the week begins.

I hope your Sunday was refreshing, too.

The Communion of Saints is Alive and Well!

Thank you, Alice, at Cottage Blessings, for bringing this story to my attention. I know that God and His saints and angels are always working miracles, mostly unbeknown to us, but it is wonderful to hear how they can come forward in ways so that no one can doubt their influence.

Please read this wonderful article about a Serbian abortion doctor who was converted by St. Thomas Aquinas himself--of whom the doctor had never heard.

Time for Chicken & Dumplings!

On a November day like this:

What you want is a steaming bowl of this:

I am not a born Southerner, and I just don't know how I came to live in the South for eleven years before I ever thought to attempt cooking this ambrosial substance. The first time I made it, I ate the leftovers for breakfast the next morning, and for lunch!

Start with a good home-made chicken stock, something glorious and flavorful. If your stock is a bit on the blah side, add a little chicken bouillon granules to give it a bit more "oomph". You'll need a lot of stock, 3 to 4 quarts. Chill it overnight after you make it, skim the fat and save it for the dumplings.

You will also need some cut up chicken, 2-4 cups. I never cut it, actually; Ijust tear it up. Put it aside.

Now for the dumplings. I am not fond of the biscuit-dough variety. I like the fat noodle type. For this you will need:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
seasonings (optional--I like sage and onion powder)
1 egg
4 Tblsp chicken fat
about a cup of warm stock.

Start heating your stock. It needs to come to a boil by the time you've finished the dumplings. Place the flour and salt and seasonings in a large bowl and mix together. In a smaller bowl, beat the egg until frothy, mix in the cup of stock and the chicken fat. Make well in the center of the flour and pour in the broth/egg/fat mixture. Mix until stiff and add a bit of flour at a time until you have a workable dough.

Turn out onto a well-floured board and give it a few kneads. Then let it rest for 5 minutes, which will make rolling it out easier.

Roll out the dough. I have a huge board, so I roll the whole thing out, but if you have a smaller workspace you may want to do half at a time. Roll it as thin as you can--1/8 to 1/16 of an inch (I wish I had a pasta-maker for this step, although the dough might be too soft). Cut it into 1" strips and then into squares (I'm nuts, so I actually run my pizza-cutter along a steel ruler to get things all even and nice!). I then toss the squares in a bowl with a little flour to separate them.

Now gently drop them, a handful at a time, into the simmering broth. Simmer for 10 minutes, then add the cut up chicken and allow it to heat through.

Add a handful of chopped fresh parsley or chives and serve piping hot!

If you homeschool and don't belong to the HSLDA...

...maybe you ought to reconsider. We all say, "That couldn't happen here. It couldn't happen to us." But all it takes is a neighbor or relative with a grudge, or someone who thinks your child may not be getting what he or she needs. This little article came in from the HSLDA's weekly newsletter:

Social Worker: “All Homeschoolers Get Psychological Evaluations”

The Smiths (named changed to protect privacy), an HSLDA member family in Miami, received an unexpected note on their front door from a social worker asking them to call the number on an attached business card. Little did they know, this was the beginning a nightmare they would not soon forget.

The father, a doctor, telephoned as requested. The social worker to whom he spoke asked to meet the family. Dr. Smith requested that the meeting be at a neutral site at a time that would minimize interruptions in his busy work schedule at a medical clinic. The social worker refused, and declared she would arrive at the Smith home the next morning to “enter the home and interview the children.”

Dr. Smith then asked what the allegations were. The social worker refused to answer, but indicated she knew the family homeschooled. Sure enough, when the social worker showed up at the Smiths’ doorstep the next morning, she again refused to explain what the allegations against the family were. This clearly violated federal law, which states that social workers must reveal allegations at the initial time of contact.

The social worker also did not have a search warrant, so Mrs. Smith initially refused to let her enter the family home. This prompted the social worker to call for two police officers.

With this intimidation, Mrs. Smith allowed the social worker to start talking to the children on the front porch. During the first interview, the social worker went so far as to lift up the shirt of the Smiths’ 9-year-old daughter, which greatly embarrassed the girl. Later, the family learned that the allegations had nothing to do with their 9-year-old.

At this point, Mrs. Smith called HSLDA, desperate for help.

Senior Counsel Chris Klicka took the call and asked that the phone be handed to the social worker. The social worker refused to talk with Klicka, so Klicka told Mrs. Smith to put him on speaker phone. Klicka then explained to the social worker how she was violating federal law by refusing to tell the family the allegations against them. Skeptical, the social worker went to her car to call her supervisor and ask if she really had to tell the family the allegations. At least she was out of the house.

Of course, Klicka was right, and the social worker grudgingly went back to the house to explain to Mrs. Smith that the allegation was from an anonymous tip concerning a situation from eight months earlier!

Soon after this, Dr. Smith arrived home, and both parents explained to the social worker that the allegations were mostly false. At the advice of Klicka, the Smiths gave the social worker names and phone numbers of their daughter’s medical doctors who have been treating her for depression. They explained to the social worker that the daughter’s fragile condition was being treated regularly in therapy. They explained that the traumatizing visit from the social worker would make their daughter's condition that much worse.

Klicka then explained to the social worker that the family would be standing on their Fourth Amendment right to not allow the social worker to enter their home or talk with the children individually. While the police officer agreed to an interview with the children in the parents’ presence in the family’s driveway, the social worker refused. The social worker treated the situation like an emergency, even when she knew the situation was eight months old and the daughter was under medical care.

To make matters worse, the social worker had one of the police officers move toward Dr. Smith, and she told the officer to handcuff him so she could remove his children from the home.

After being threatened to this extreme, the family felt they had no choice but to let the social worker into their home to interview the children, who were now crying and wailing. During the interview, the social worker would not let the witness the family provided be present. She also proceeded to lift the shirts and clothing of each child, even those whom the allegations did not concern.

The social worker found nothing—but said still she wanted the family to “undergo a formal psycho-social assessment.”

When the Smiths asked “Why?” the social worker replied, “This is done in all investigations with homeschooled children!”

Needless to say, the Smiths declined the assessments, and relied on HSLDA to take care of the rest.

Klicka sent the social worker a letter outlining all the ways in which she had broken the law:

1. By entering the home and interviewing the children through intimidation;
2. By not letting them know the allegations at the initial visit; and
3. By interviewing children whom the allegations did not concern.

Klicka explained that the case should be closed immediately, as there was no evidence against the family. He also explained that the daughter’s issues with depression were being handled adequately by medical experts and psychologists familiar with the situation.

The family has not been hassled by this social worker since, and the case is closed. HSLDA is considering a civil rights suit.

No more creepy blog entries, for now anyway...

I have to take a break from all this bad stuff. Get back to kids and schooling and recipes and all the mundane stuff that is the path to my salvation. I find I am very stressed and emotional lately, and although I cannot rule out the fact that it just may be the first unpleasant indications that pre-menopause is here, I have a feeling at has more to do with the dark, brooding meanderings of my mind lately. So without further ado, here are a few nice photos that have nothing to do with Obama or Hitler:

Did you know...

...not all Kenyans are enthralled with Obama.

Heaven help us--the Obama Youth?

As if a program of socialism, promotion of abortion and the teary-eyed hordes of emotional Obama-worshippers are not enough to send shivers up our spines, now we hear of our president-elect's plans for a youth corp. Participation would be mandatory. Okay, I am thoroughly creeped...

Petitions to Promote Life

Danette of A Crocus in the Valley has posted some very important links to petitions. The first is to fight the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which our president-elect has promised to sign into law during his first 100 days in office. The other it to protest our tax dollars going to fund Planned Parenthood. You can find these links here.

Crash

He missed his nap. And when I realized the house was unusually quiet, I went to look for him. And there he was, in my bedroom doorway with George, Dolly and Green Dog.

A new day dawns at Patch O' Dirt

Sunrise this morning.

Change, but not necessarily unity...

Very sad. And for once I am at a loss for words. Just read about what occurred at the school where Paul, of Alive and Young, works on the morning after the election. One hopes that there can be some tiny speck of good to come from an administration that will expand funding for the destruction of its future citizens, but I can't even find that speck. I see no good.

Tutorial: What to do with all those pretty leaves

Take one beautiful autumn day (see post below) and a few kids, then go and find a bunch of pretty leaves like these:Bring them home and sort out the nicest of the bunch. Make sure they are all dry.Now melt some beeswax in a double-boiler. I just melted down a bunch of old candle stubs. If I'd had it on hand, I would have added a drop or two of cinnamon oil.When it is thoroughly melted, take the leaves by the stem and immerse them, one at a time, in the wax. Hold them over the pot to drip a bit, then lay them on waxed paper. Continue until you have a nice assortment.
Okay, so now you have a pile of gorgeous leaves. What are you going to do with them? You can 1)use them in a floral arrangement; 2) wire them to wreath; 3) display them in a nice wood or pottery bowl or 4) if you're insane like me, go half-blind stringing them with invisible nylon thread and hang them from the ceiling, thus:

A clear November day at Patch O' Dirt Farm

I feel almost hungover

Must be post-election trauma. I feel very strange, a little surreal, like I have awakened in a slightly altered reality. It is as though the supernatural world of angels, demons and saints has lost a little transparency, that they have become more like shadows moving on the periphery of ordinary life. Am I just a paranoid conservative Catholic, or is our nation polarizing, drawing deeper lines between good and evil? Are we preparing for battle?

No more sitting back on our laurels. Yes, yesterday I wrote that I was at peace, and in a sense I truly am: God is still with His people. But like a parent who may step out of sight around a corner to see how long it takes the toddler, engrossed with a toy, to notice her absence, God may be stepping back and waiting for us to get up and look for Him.

I can't help but feel that the key to overcoming evil in this country is not to try to goad others on to greater holiness. That may be important, but I don't feel that it is the key. It just seems to me that what we cannot change in others, we can change in ourselves. We need to do more to achieve our own personal holiness. Not that I believe this will change things quickly...it's not as though evil will open its eyes and say, "Wow, I've been wrong about everything! I'm converted!" Remember, evil will tolerate mediocrity, but it cannot stomach goodness. We will be in for a long period of persecution, and all we hold sacred will be mocked and scorned. Our own Blessed Mother has said as much. And we have been headed in this direction for a long time.

But this morning I woke up with the feeling, "Now it begins in earnest..."

It is scary and somehow exciting thinking that we are living in crucial times. Part of me, the fearful part, hopes that I'm just being paranoid and that I am wrong. But the part of me that longs for the deep conviction of the martyrs feels a sort of exhilaration. I'm not in the least athletic, but I imagine a climber about to scale a cliff-face may feel a bit like this. Maybe I ought to be petrified, as I know that I am not really up to the challenge, but I trust God. Maybe for the first time in my life, I trust Him.

My response to a despairing friend's email

Dear Jennifer,

I wept this morning, but am strangely at peace now. This may not be the will of God, but He has most certainly permitted it. I will pray for Obama, that God use him for His greater glory, that He grant him wisdom and a conversion of heart. God knocked St. Paul from his horse, He can do the same to Obama if He wills it. And if not, what then? Can I despair? Should I think God has abandoned us? Was God not aware of all those who died in WWII concentration camps? Has he abandoned His faithful in the Sudan and in India, who are being butchered by Muslims and Hindus?

Remember that His Kingdom is not of this world, or else He would not have been crucified by the world. His concern is less for our bodies than for our souls, and if He feels that the bodies of His beloved children must suffer so that their souls may be tried and purified, so be it. He permitted His Son to be tortured and killed so that we might share in His divinity. Remember that if the world despised and crucified Him, we can expect nothing better for ourselves.

This is a time to draw close to Christ and to make a reassessment of how we live our lives. Do we place God and His Kingdom first? Are we teaching our children to do so, or do we just pay lip-service to Him? This is a time for resolutions, a time to increase our resolve to be faithful. It is a time to increase our devotions and make even greater use of the sacraments and sacramentals we have at our disposal. It is a good time to pour out our hearts to Him in the Blessed Sacrament.

But we cannot despair, for that only shows a poverty of faith. Hold fast to the barque of Peter and be not afraid.

Yours, with Mary at the foot of the cross,

Nadja

The rotten fruits of the "religion of peace"

It's election day, and yes, we have voted. I am praying for a McCain victory, but I am not at all confident of one. Still, even if that death-monger, Obama, becomes president, I thank God that I do not live in a Muslim country, and that I do not have to live day-to-day with things like this.

Free ePattern from Sense & Sensibility

I'm only a novice on the sewing machine, but I hope to become more proficient in time. You may have noticed the link for Sense & Sensibility Patterns in my Other Favorite Links box. Jennie Chancey has the most beautiful, feminine historic patterns, and she even has online instructions for creating many of them. Now she is offering ePatterns, downloadable to your computer, and to anyone who is willing to post a link to the ePatterns on a blog (or email 10 friends with the link), she will give one of her ePattern free of charge.

So if you sew, it may be something for you! Here is the link to the ePatterns.

Cure for the Common Tongue

I love Paul Cat of the Alive and Young blog. I have loved him ever since reading his post, "Black & Tan: the Hypostatic Union of Christ."

He teaches, and as a teacher he is within earshot of a lot of young people, and many of these young people have a language impediment. They use foul language. He has come up with a discipline for such young people that may just nip the habit in the bud, so that there will be that many fewer adults out there sounding like gutter snipes one day.

Read all about it here.

Hayride!

Oh yes, it's wonderful weather for a hayride together with you!

Happy Feast of All Saints!

My usual All Saints Day plans have been superseded somewhat by the fact that I have non-Catholic family visiting for the weekend, and they have plans for time with the children of their own. We will do the cookie decorating and a little quiz on the saints, and we will, tonight, pray the Litany of the Saints before bed. Usually we have a treasure hunt that ends in bags of candy for each of the kids, but my dad brought a ton of candy for the kids, and so I guess we'll be saving what I bought for Advent!

Yesterday Grandpa carved a jack-o-lantern with the boys while Una tried on all the pretty girlie-clothes (lots of pink!) and hair thingamabobs Grandma Terrie bought for her. A distinct advantage of being the sole granddaughter of 11 grandchildren! Later in the afternoon Una and I baked crown and cross shaped sugar cookies, which we will decorate today. Una and Sebastian adorned themselves with flour for the photo shoot.

Grandma Stella had to leave today before dawn to go back to Tucson. It's been so nice having her here, and she has promised to come again as soon as she is able. We'll miss her.