We're still shivering!

Ken in the grocery store picks up a vegetable--"Look at this small cabbage!"
Me--"That's a Brussel Sprout (point to much larger vegetable) THIS is a cabbage."
Ken--"This is a house of horrors!!"

Fowl Play

Yesterday, in broad daylight someone abducted one of my hens!! I left the house to catch some baseball practice and when I returned this was all that was left of Henny-Penny!! I suspect someone foxy but still am amazed at the brazenness of the crime. Is a hen not safe in her own yard?? Her very nervous sisters are safe in the coop and will not return to the great outdoors until I get some strong fencing. I cry "murder most fowl!!"

Mary in May

The dear Bookworm has organized a delightful trip around the world with Mary for the entire month of May. We will be following along with Litany prayers and will attach the images of Mary provided to the various countries on a world map along with reading the history of each image. Thank you, Kathryn, for all the work and love you have put into this project!! What a great way to end the school year.

Due to circumstances beyon my control we won't being doing school tomorrow so thought we would get started today. This worked well as today is Our Lady of Africa's feast day!

Spring Yellows

It seems that all the flowers that are blooming now are yellow. Here are some samples





Dafoldils or Dafododillies (The ones in the center with the orange trumpets are called Kedron Dafodils!)

Forsythia

Marsh Marigolds

Robin update

Our Robins are the proud parents of two adorable chicks. Sadly two eggs didn't make it but the two who did are growing rapidly. In a few days they should be big enough to photograph without getting too close to the nest.

A note found on a table

Dear Samul,
I will meet you Tuesday, midnight. Bring your gun, the hunt is afoot. Time for gusto.

Tracer Bullet

I fear there is a secret underground society using my living room for a hideout!

Ocular Athletics

Color by Adam

Color makes this world interesting. God could make this planet see in black and white, but then we could not see the color of the sky, the trees, all the things on the Earth and of it would be bland and colorless. The work of all the artists all through the years in front of canvas making paintngs would be for nothing. But thanks to God all things are in color. We can see the green leaves, the blue of water and the colors of paaintings. There is more meaning to color than all that, think of how we use color in diagrams. Not seeing color we would get all mixed up and would get orgers wrong. God also made things so it is not colorful, so life is just right the way God planned it.

A Plastic Cup by Joe

A cup is, as I'm sure you know, a drinking vessel. A cup looks like a long narrow bowl. This particular cup is green and it is NOT made in China. It is made in the U.S.A> so I'm happy. This cup is about six inches around at the top and four at the bottom. We use these cups in trips to the beach, and the zoo, and amusement parks because they're plastic and don't break.

Zoo

Taking advantage of the still lovely Spring weather we've been having we went to the zoo yesterday. Here are the boys communing with the otter. The meerkats were also enjoying the sun.

Can it be Summer?

After what seemed like a very loooong Winter (44 inches of snow in March alone!) we finally have a stretch of nice weather. So nice in fact we went to the beach on Friday. The lake temperature was 45 degrees so no swimming (although they asked) but the air temp was a very balmy 72! Very relaxing, and I got three chapters of Sense and Sensibility read.

Literary Ramblings

I've been reading Jane Austen by Carol Shields this week. It caught my eye at the library. I know I'm supposed to be reading my way through Chesterton but I got hung up dithering over whether to buy The Napoleon of Notting Hill or get it through library inter-loan. My heart says,"Buy it, you can't have too much Chesterton on the shelves!" but my budget says, "NO WAY!! Save your money for the titles that aren't available from the library!" Anyway, I picked up the biography and it caught my attention and I actually finished it. (A very rare occurrence here where I start an average of three books a week and maybe finish one). So I picked up the Jane Austen rabbit trail and decided to re-read Sense and Sensibility. Then I remembered that the girls had an old copy of Love & Freindship (sic) and Other Early Works. I searched the bookcase in their old room (turning in to something of a shrine to femininity. I must either re-decorate in to a boy's room or perhaps move in a a refuge against all these males--even the cat is male!) and flipped it open to the title page--Love & Freindship(sic) and Other Early Works now first published from the Original MS by Jane Austen with a Preface by G.K. Chesterton.

Eggs!

We have eggs in our robin's nest. I took a very grainy picture form the window, not wanting to disturb our mother but it's not worth posting.

Things are very Spring-like here (finally) and it is hard to concentrate on anything much. Certainly not school work although we are plugging along to fill in our 180 days. I am also in planning mode for next year and sorting through what worked this year(Latina Christiana) and I want to carry over and what didn't (Sonlight Eastern Hemisphere Explorer!! I have friends who loved this but it did not work for us): l But right now it is sunny and 70 degrees out and the garden is calling....I'll try some pictures of those daffodils Joe wrote about and the primroses are blooming t00.

Ocular Athletics

Daffidodillis (Daffodils) by Joe

Daffidodillis or daffodils are yellow, six petaled flowers with a trumpet like tube. Before daffodils bloom they look like thick blades of grass with buds. Daffodils are a sure sign that Winter is over and Spring has begone. The trumpet has a ruffle around the edge. When the flower blooms the dried out bud is left like a papery sun-bonnet.


Trees and Leaves by Adam

A leaf is a part of a tree. Leaves can come in all shapes and sizes. My favorite kind is a maple leaf and second is an oak. I like maple because it is straight and is noble. I also like a maple tree because I like the way it just branches out and is easy to climb. I like the oak's leaves, its and the maple's are very much alike, but the maple's leaf has five points and the oak's has seven. Now I'm done so I shall move on...ho, all right, one more example. Take the cherry, it is short and does not take up much room, its leaf is shaped like a spear head. That's all I have to say. Good-bye.

John Kanzius

John Kanzius will be on 60 Minutes this Sunday to explain the science of his cancer treatment. Trials with animals are moving ahead and look very promising. Please say a pray for this man in the hope that he lives long enough to be cured of his own cancer.

Full Circle

Sam helped me put the picture of the robin's nest on the blog last night. Then he corrected my grammar. The comma before the prepositional phrase....that's his. Okay, I've never been good with commas and I overuse parenthesis but he still can't spell!! (oh, and I overuse exclamation points,too!). Love you Sam!!!

Shh...she's nesting

A robin has very thoughtfully built a nest right outside our kitchen window. She spent all of last Thursday on construction and has been sighted in the nest several times since then, but no eggs yet.

Success!!

Another picture trial: finally, I've managed a picture. Tegan with Zeus. Format needs work but it is a start! I hope she is still smiling as she had all four wisdom teeth removed yesterday, poor girl. And no mother in D.C. to make her tea, alas.

Ocular Athletics VIII

A Crucible by J.C.

Today, oh reader, I am writing about a not so common object. A crucible is a smith tool for melting metal. (don't try it at home--very dangerous--smiths are experts. I am the author, you are the person who reads this stuff) A crucible is basically a bowl, usually made of clay. Crucibles are made to be put in especially hot coals to melt down metal. Say you have a bar of silver and you want to have a silver bowl. You put the silver in a crucible, put the crucible in the coals, then pour the molten silver in the mold and let it cool. Then break the mold and voila!. A silver bowl.

A Flag by Adam

A flag is an item which represents something. For example, the flag of the United States has 50 stars which stand for the 50 states. It has thirteen stripes which stand for the thirteen colonies. The red in the flag stands for the blood spilt in American wars. The blue stands for truth and the white stands for purity. But no matter what they stand for, all flags are different. Britain's flag is a combination of three different flags. It has England's flag but also has the flags of Scotland and Ireland all in one--the Union Jack. So if you ever wonder why flags exist, this is why,to represent a country.

Blog Block

It is April (finally) and it is surely raining. Hard. And while the little tips of daffodils that are pushing themselves up out of the cold, cold earth are heartening, it is just not enough. Too much mud. (and snow, too)I took Holy Week off and now I find I have nothing to write about. Our Ocular Athletic pieces have been pretty blah too. Not worth posting. Tomorrow's forecast is more promising. Perhaps I'll have a more promising post by then. But for now, it is rainy.....and I have blog block.