Easter Break and Homeschooling Grandparents

We brought our high school home schooled granddaughter back with us from Texas this week, but the caveat was that she had to do her homeschooling with us while she's here. The math tutor (aka Paka, our family name for Grandpa) has been sitting down with her every day to coach Geometry. And the more literary grandma is working on reading Chesterton's Ballad of the White Horse. We also have tickets to Julius Caesar next week and will listen to most of the play on our way to Staunton when we go. It's helpful to jump into Shakespeare's world before you see a play.

We like to help our home schooling kids and this two weeks with our granddaughter is an opportunity not to be missed. She gets to visit with her cousins, be coached one-on-one by grandparents, and enjoy our wonderful Virginia weather. (Well, two out of three isn't bad.)

Our happy chaos will begin with the arrival of our first visiting family tomorrow (Mom, Dad, and five girls) and then the others will arrive on Saturday. The fun extends with the last visitors going home on Tuesday or Wednesday. We always enjoy these boisterous interludes separated by long stretches of comfortable solitude.

May everybody reading this have a blessed Triduum and a Happy Easter season stretching all the way to Pentecost!

I Couldn't Make the March Due to a Bout with Strep Throat...

....but our family was well represented. Only three of the adults in the photo were born before Roe v. Wade. All the rest of these dear ones are survivors of the abortion holocaust. If you are a survivor, how can you be pro-abortion? It's only by God's grace and your mom's decision to let you live that you didn't end up like one third of your spiritual brothers and sister - in the landfills and sewage systems of this once great nation!

A Few Days of Spring in Mid-Winter: Watching the Honeybees

It's supposed to hit 60 here in the valley today and we just spent several hours with Gordon, a bee-keeping friend, who took us out to one of his hive locations. There were about fifteen hives there and most active. A few died over the winter, but he said he'll have no trouble re-filling them when some of the hives swarm in the spring because they're over-populated.

His "girls" were very active in the warm sunshine flying around doing their thing. They pretty much ignored us although a few landed on my arm and gave me a close up view of their beautiful little bee-bodies. It's easy to see where the term "busy as bees" comes from.

Gordon lifted a few of the inactive hive lids and showed us the inside with cells containing pollen, honey, or new brood (i.e. baby bees).  Larry and I are soaking up everything we can and plan to go shopping next month for the hive equipment we need to get two colonies started. I'm excited to try this new hobby and am already exploring our property for the best bee hive location. We probably won't get any honey our first year. The bees will need what they produce to winter over next year. In the meantime, we look forward to this adventure with 30 or 50 thousand new girlfriends and two queens.

Please Pray for my Friend Jim

A pro-life friend of mine, Jim, who is a sidewalk counselor and Catholic activist had a heart attack last Friday and is scheduled for open heart surgery tomorrow. Please pray that it will be a great success and he'll be back on the front lines soon. If I know Jim, he'll die with his boots on while he's trying to rescue another endangered baby from an abortionist. God bless him!

On the Second Day of Christmas...

Big snow of 2007 -- 2012 couldn't measure up.

We got snowed in!  Our son and family were going to Pennsylvania from our home to visit his sister and her family. It was snowing vigorously this morning causing speculation and vacillation about whether they would try it or not since west of us the weather was even worse. As he left, David said we should pray if they weren't meant to go that they couldn't navigate the hill down the road. Larry and I began our rosary praying that if they would be in danger the Lord should prevent them getting up the hill through the intercession of St. Scholastica. Why St. Scholastica, you ask? She was a nun and the twin sister of St. Benedict of Nursia one of the founders of monastic life. Scholastica and Benedict usually arranged a visit once a year at a residence halfway between their respective monasteries. On one occasion, the last time they would ever meet, Benedict got ready for the return trip since, according to his rule, the monks could not be away from the monastery overnight. Scholastica begged him to stay so they could continue their holy conversation but he refused. At that, Scholastica prayed that God would prevent Benedict from leaving since he would not listen to her pleas. Such a torrential storm began that Benedict and his companions were forced to stay. God granted her prayer and filial love that day prevailed over Benedict's monastic rule.

Today, our visit with our son and his family was extended by inclement weather and an icy hill that forced David to back up the car all the way to our driveway, about a tenth of a mile. While we are delighted for the extra time together we are sad for the grandchildren who were disappointed not to be going to see their cousins after all. 

The prescription for disappointment is (after exhortation to offer it to get forgotten souls out of purgatory) a six-hour Pride and Prejudice marathon for our very unhappy almost teenage granddaughter, outdoor snow play, Yahtzee, a jigsaw puzzle, and plenty of goodies. It is certainly an appropriate way to continue the celebration of Christmas! 

We hope all those affected by this big snowstorm are safe and enjoying the blessings of family life. 

Thinking about Beekeeping

We've been talking about keeping bees for several years and I think 2013 will be the year we start. I've been doing some research and here are a few videos for the prospective beekeeper. Looks pretty straightforward n'est-ce pas? And it doesn't look like a huge investment in equipment. One of my resources suggested beginners should start two hives at once. We'll keep you posted on our progress. I'm interested in finding a beekeepers' group to join. There are several within about an hour of here.





I really like these next two about installing the hives. When he sprays them down with sugar water he says it's like beer and TV for bees. LOL!

Meeting Up With Aliens - In Roswell, NM of course

Roswell, NM and the UFO Research Museum was right on the path to Albuquerque so how could we not stop? It was actually very interesting and there are plenty of unexplained happenings not only relating to the famous 1947 crash reports, but with the strange crop circles and other unexplained happenings. What I found particularly interesting were the testimonies from folks who described being threatened by government agents to shut up about what they had seen. One display on an archaeology project at the site in 2002 sponsored by the Sci-Fi channel and archaeology professors from the University of New Mexico described the participation of the daughter of Major Edwin Easley who responsible for securing the site in 1947. On his death bed he referred to the victims of the crash as "creatures." So is it all a bunch of hokum? Or is there more to learn? Efforts are being made to declassify everything that had to do with the 1947 events. Whatever the truth, it was an interesting way to spend a few hours.

Larry was particularly fascinated by the crop circles. As one website says:

The specific placement of the shapes indicates that, whoever the circlemakers are, they have an intricate knowledge ofEuclidean geometry (the geometry of a flat surface introduced by the mathematician Euclid of Alexandria). 

So that seems to rule out our dumbed down high school students carrying out a hoax in the middle of the night. And if it is a hoax where are the imprecise crop circles that fail to show the precision these show? Strange! Maybe we do have strange visitors sending us messages. (Cue for the Twilight Zone music.)

Aliens on parade.

 

Crop circle - the precision of these geometric patterns is unexplained.

Descriptions from the 2002 archaeology dig.

What did Nancy Johnston's dad really see?

Will the real aliens please stand up?