Daddy

Finnian: "Who were you speaking with on the phone?"

Me: "I was speaking with your father."

Finnian: "My father?"

Me: "Yes. Do you know who your father is?"

Finnian: "Who?"

Me: "Your daddy."

Finnian: "Oh!"

My Little Boy

Me:  "Good night, my little man.  I love you!"

Finnian:  "I am not a little man.  I am a little boy, but you can call me your little man if you want."

The Symphony

Sergey Sukhobrusov
Photo copyright the
Federal Way Symphony 

Bernadette's violin teacher plays for the Federal Way Symphony and the Rainier Symphony. She encourages her students to attend these or another symphonies' concerts. After looking at the schedule and reading that a guest violinist would be performing in Federal Way, my husband agreed to accompany my two oldest daughters to their first symphony. 

They enjoyed listening to Felix Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave, Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1. They were able to sit close to the stage and see even more than their seating permitted, thanks to a large screen that displayed a magnified view of various members of the symphony. My oldest daughter really appreciated this enhanced view and found the guest violinist's fingering fascinating. My husband was impressed by the talent of the musicians and the force with which the music was played. All three of them are looking forward to going to the symphony in December and listening to some Christmas music.

If you have a symphony near you, I highly recommend that you (and your children) take the time to experience at least one concert.

Symphonies in our area include:

The Auburn Symphony
The Everett Symphony

The Federal Way Symphony

The Puget Sound Symphony

The Rainier Symphony

The Seattle Symphony

The Tacoma Symphony

Picture Books for the Sixth Week of Kindergarten

Last week, we visited the library and the children chose a few books from the shelf. One of them will be checked out again around Groundhog's Day and another will be checked out again in April when the tulips that are currently being planted usually start blooming.

The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman

Patrick was happy to find this classic book on the library shelf.

Mrs. Bird decides that she no longer likes her nest.  So, she and Mr. Bird search for a new home.

My one reservation about this book is that it uses the word "hate".  Since we try to avoid the use of this word in our house, I change the words to "didn't like".

Gregory's Shadow by Don Freeman

This title isn't as good as Norman the Doorman or Corduroy, but my children enjoyed listening to it and the story will be perfect for February.

Gregory and Shadow leave their house one day prior to groundhog's day.  When Gregory sees the scarecrow's shadow, he gets scared and runs inside his home, accidentally shutting Shadow outside.  Eventually, Gregory realizes that Shadow is missing and goes in search of him.  Once Gregory and Shadow are reunited, they need to decide whether or not the farmers will see Gregory's shadow.

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Some books will always be enjoyed no matter how old a child grows.  My eldest son enjoyed listening to this book, too, and I enjoyed reading it.

Hana in the Time of the Tulips by Deborah Noyes

When one of my children pulled this book off the shelf, I noticed that Red Butterfly: How a Princess Smuggled the Secret of Silk Out of China was sitting next to it. Knowing that we had enjoyed reading Red Butterfly, I checked to see whether Deborah Noyes was the author.  After confirming that this was the case, I added the book in my child's hand to our growing stack of titles to check out.  I am glad that I did.

Deborah Noyes writes in the "time of Rembrandt" about a young girl, Hana, and her father's tulip prospecting. Hana wants to be a doctor and tends to her father's ailments, but as her father worries about his "tulip business", he seems to grow farther and farther away from her.  Hana tries to cheer him up with a sprig of rosemary, fireflies, and by weaving nature's simple smile out of daisies.  Eventually, Hana (Rembrandt's student) paints a beautiful tulip for her father and succeeds in drawing him out.

Patrick has listened to this book at least twice this week and seems to really like it.  I am looking forward to checking it out again in April and studying a little bit more about Rembrandt.

An Answer

Almost two years ago, I committed my children and I to going to Mass at our parish one extra day a week. Recently, due to the distance, I had been questioning whether or not I could continue doing so during the school year. Last week, I found my answer rereading a passage in a book and it corresponded with what my husband had been encouraging me to do.

"Fidelity is the other great aid of this epoch of the spiritual life. What is meant by it is this. Even although we may not be living under a rule of life, still as a matter of fact the duties and devotions of one day very much resemble those of another. It is practically as if we promised God certain things and a particular round of religious observances: so much so that conscience reproaches us whenever we causelessly intermit any of them. Thus these daily observances come to be a kind of condition of our perseverance. They acquire a sort of sanctity, and become the ordinary channels by which God pours His grace into our souls. The tempter sees all this, and estimates this daily perseverance at its just value. He puts forth all his strength to throw us out of it, and makes us fretful and irregular. He makes it feel heavy to us as a weight of lead. Or he represents it to us as a dangerous formality. Or he reminds us that we are not bound to it either by obedience or by vow. Or he contrives that we should read something that was meant for scrupulous persons, and mistakenly apply it to ourselves. Or he makes us fancy that such regularity is not good for our health. Any pretext will do, so long as he can allure us into unfaithfulness either to the movements of grace or to our routine of spiritual exercises. His anxiety to make us unfaithful is the token to us of the paramount importance of fidelity.

The legitimate decay of our first fervors, when their time was accomplished, has naturally thrown us more upon ourselves. This is an anxious thing, though it was always intended, and must have come sooner or later. But one consequence of it is that it has become more necessary than ever for us to wear a yoke of some kind, and to learn what ascetical writers call the spirit of captivity. This is of great value to us, as it makes all our conquests and acquisitions real, and preserves them for us. Moreover we stand in need of cheerfulness to face the long outstretching desert that lies before us; and nothing keeps alive in us a holy joy more effectually than fidelity to grace and our appointed observances. The sense of wretchedness which follows frequent or habitual laxity drives us to seek consolation from creatures, and to re-enter the world that we may have the pleasure of forgetting ourselves there awhile, and hiding ourselves from the merciful persecution of exciting grace. Besides which the formation of virtuous habits is interrupted by our unfaithfulness, and this weakens our whole position, and makes our future harder, while actual ground also is lost by the intermission. In a word, fidelity is the raw material of perseverance; and to perceive this, is to see that its importance cannot be exaggerated."

Growth in Holiness, p.  37

The Fruit of Aging

Theresa: "Mommy, I was looking at photos of you after you had Brendan and you used to be so thin."

Theresa: "Mommy, you used to look pretty.  You had pure black hair and young skin."

Humility

Sweetly Important

Last week, as the children were riding their bikes, Finnian walked over to me and the following conversation took place.

Finnian: "Mommy, I need to talk to you about something."

Me: "What do you need to talk to me about?"

Finnian: "Well, I need to tell you something."

Me: "What do you need to tell me?"

Finnian: "I like you."

The Hummingbird

We have been enjoying watching hummingbirds this summer.  Yesterday, Brendan used my little Canon to take photos and a short video of one of our guests.  He is hoping to get a video of the hummingbird in the sun, so that its colors are fully visible.

Happy Birthday to Our Blessed Mother!

Updated: The slideshow has been updated with more videos and photos taken by Brendan. Some of the photos were taken with my husband's Canon (it takes great pictures). I am amazed by my son's ability to follow a hummingbird with a camera. I couldn't do nearly as well as him. The 4 minute slideshow is worth watching in its entirety.  :)

Third Man on the Mountain

Last night, we watched Third Man on the Mountain. My husband had seen it many years ago, but it was the first time that the children and I had seen it.  We thoroughly enjoyed the movie.  

The movie is based on a true story.  Rudi, is the son a famous mountain guide who died while trying to save the life of a climber on the 'Citadel' (the Matterhorn). As he washes dishes, Rudi dreams about climbing to the top of the Citadel and placing his father's red shirt there. Unfortunately, his mother and uncle do not want him to climb, but as Elizabeth (Rudi's sweetheart) states, trying to stop Rudi from climbing mountains, "would be like trying to bottle up the wind." As the film progresses, Rudi and the viewers learn an important lesson about sacrificing desires and putting others first.

The film was made in 1959, when Disney still knew how to make family movies. I was pleased to see that a crucifix hung above the bed of Elizabeth and that Rudi prayed before a little shrine.  The beautiful Swiss scenery and intriguing story line kept all of our attention.

We will be adding this movie to our collection.