Author: JenniferFitz

What to Read.

I’m here in Dallas (no one told me it was beautiful!) with a slooooow internet connection, so you’ll have to read somewhere else this week. No shortage of options.

Two brand new homeschooling blogs, written by internet friends of mine, that I think are worth a look:

Home Grown is by a Catholic mom of 1, and for all everyone sighs and moans at the sight of large homeschooling families, 1-child families have a dynamic that can be quite challenging for the stay-at-home parent.  I love how Susan is up front about the problems she works through.  Also, I wish I could write as beautifully as her 4th grader. There’s a reason this blog doesn’t include penmanship samples.

[And so that you’re warned, any snide comments about family size, and I’ll scratch your eyes out. You have no idea.  No. idea.]

180 Days of Homeschool is by Amy, a mom of eight, ages baby to senior in high school.  She’s been at this homeschooling thing for a while, and the day-by-day approach gives a nice realistic look at what it is homeschoolers really do all day.  The other interesting thing for non-homeschoolers to note: by “homeschooling” what we often mean is “sending the kids to school, just not all day every day”.  Amy has a few kids taking classes at a home-school school — think private Catholic school, but courses ordered a la carte, much more like college.

On education: If you aren’t already reading Bearing’s tremendously thorough series on the goals of Catholic education, per the Church, check it out.

***

On the plane I started reading Grace in the Shadows by Denise Jackson.  I read a lot of self-published books for the Catholic Writers’ Guild Seal of Approval process, so I am fully aware of the trepidation one feels in picking such a work.  The content on this one is excellent.  It’s part-memoir, part no-nonsense talk about the reality of sexual abuse, and how to move forward despite a miserable past.  It has a very personal style (there’s poetry, for one thing) that you wouldn’t see in many traditionally-published books, so I’m glad Denise chose to stick to her guns and write it the way she thought it needed to be told.

At the halfway point, I’m giving it a ‘buy’ recommend for anyone who has the job of creating a safe environment for preventing abuse, or has the vocation of being the friend of a sexual abuse survivor.  Denise Jackson has a very mature, well-balanced Christian spirituality, and what has fascinated me as I read is seeing how many of the patterns of behavior and emotion surrounding sexual abuse are in fact the same patterns you see in many other situations.  Great book.  I can’t wait to finish it.

3.5 Time Outs: What Works

Thanks once again to our host, Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who is the picture of patience with his minions.  (And he prays for them too.  If you’re going to have an overlord, that’s the sort you want.)

Click and be amazed.

1.

My daughter recommends using frozen blueberries instead of ice cubes in your limeade.

We own limeade concentrate because it makes the best margaritas.  Cup of ice, one scoop limeade slush, tequila, jiggle it around, done.  Best ever.

But apparently the blueberries go over big with the under-21 crowd.

2.

Look, the Darwins have school plans.  So do I, but I’m saving my enthusiasm for the first week of September.  We did two weeks of remedial Latin at the beginning of this month, then I cancelled class until I was satisfied I was ready for the conference next week, so that I wouldn’t have terrible nightmares about running to the airport and forgetting my shoes, or trying to give out business cards but I forget to get them printed — you know the drill.

What the Darwins do is what I’d do, if I were the Darwins.  You know what I mean.  They have a good approach.  I like it.

3.

Book department update 1.0: I learned last week how important it is to have a book deadline.  (Mine is 8/27, approximately 28,000 words.)  Because otherwise, I’ll never stop writing.  There’s always one more little thing to say.  I made myself stop before I hit 30,000, and this week [yes, this week, because even last week, new words kept sneaking in despite my resolve to be done adding anything else, forever and ever amen] I’m using the delete key to clean out the dust.

3.5

Book department update 1.5: My half of the contract is signed.  Waiting to get back the copy from the publisher with both signatures on it.  Then we’ll be legal, and I’ll have to resist the urge to post something in ALL CAPS because I’ll be SO EXCITED.  As you knew I would be.  Accountants are never happy until the lines are all properly filled.

***

And with that, I’m back to regular life.  I’ll keep y’all in my prayers, and I’m trying to work through my blogging backlog in addition to doing all the other stuff I need to do, so look for me to pop in with this or that, time permitting.  Have a great week!

(And yes, you can post links.  I am, by the way, reading comments.  Oh, about once a week, but I am.  And trying to reply as well.)

7 Takes: The Ease With Which We Lie

Lighter fare this way. Click as needed.

1.

I would like to thank all of you who have prayed for me.  I’m lousy at praying, but I do pray for my benefactors, and that would be you.  Because your work has been, thus far, very effective.  I would like to double-thank those who have been patient in practical matters as my attendance at this or that has been spotty.

2.

Tuesday  morning I learned a friend had been deceiving me for some time.  Not lying, not outright.  She’d made a (perfectly legitimate) decision that she knew I wouldn’t like.  She put off telling me, presumably in the hopes it would simply never become an issue. That I wouldn’t, in the end, need to know after all.

2468 Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.

What began as prudence and discretion, looking for the right moment to share the news I needed to know, turned into  a lack of candor as the months dragged out.   Sometimes I worry about doing the same thing.  Is there something I should be saying, and haven’t?  It is easy enough to be misunderstood.  It is possible to deceive without intending to, without any sin at all.

3.

2469 “Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another.”262 The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, “as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth.”263

4.

I should note here that my own fault runs more often the other way — I had already strained our relationship by being quite blunt in a matter where I felt absolute candor trumped sparing of feelings.  There are long passages in the catechism about the importance of not saying too much.   I stink at that.

Even when I am trying to be prudent, to actually shut up and think for a change, there’s always the wondering.  Does someone truly need to know this thing I know?  Will I be more guilty for speaking, or for not?

5.

2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth. By injuring man’s relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.

So I was composing this post in my head this morning before mass.  After, I had the privilege of being outright lied to, in a mortal-sin kind of way, if my fact-checking turns out to be correct.  (Completely different scenario, different people.)  It was . . . very strange.

But it happens.  People do evil things.  People who are kind and generous and pious sometimes do evil things.

6.

Why do Mark Shea and Chris Tollefsen get told off every time they point out lying is wrong?  I think it’s because we’re so used to it.*

We have a cultural fear of the truth.  Faced with a difficult thing to say about even the most trivial matter, we tend to look for away to skirt the truth.  How can I get my girlfriend to purchase a different outfit, without telling her this one she loves makes her look awful / is terribly tacky / is exactly the one I’m wearing to the same event?

We are so used to thinking of deceit as necessary for police work, or some similar situation, that it is unimaginable, truly unthinkable, that it might, possibly, be the wrong thing to do.  We so fear harming innocent children or the frail elderly with difficult facts, that I’ve been accused of great cruelty for suggesting that such people can, in fact, be given difficult but necessary news in some sensitive but honest way.

7.

And it cannot be denied: the moral life is not the easier life.  The freedom truth brings is bought at a cost.  A willingness to risk not nabbing the criminal, of making the little girl cry for the rest of her life, of causing grandma’s heart to fail.  Or a boycott by angry customers.  Or martyrdom.

Mostly, doing what is right is also doing what feels better.  What, in the end, makes like easier.  Our conscience is clear, our friendships are solid, people want to work with and help others they know to be decent, honest folk.  Mostly.

Not always.

Don’t forget to pray for Allie Hathaway, then go read more takes at the home of our lovely hostess Jen F. at ConversionDiary.com. 

*Not telling them off.  Lying.  Though we’re also getting used to telling them off.  Curiously, my Mark Shea link has no negative comments on it, at this writing.

Complete Abandonment to the Will of God

When I’m praying the 4th glorious mystery of the rosary, that’s what I think about.  Mary entirely entrusting herself to the will of God.  At the hour of our death, we all be come childlike — our fate entirely in the hands of the Lord, whether we intended it or not.  You really cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven any other way.  Scientific fact.

But before that?  Eh.  Not so easy.

One of the surreal side effects of trusting in God, is knowing that in the middle of the something miserable, we can look forward with hope, and in my case, curiosity, towards the future.  How’s He going to sort this one out?  But surreal, because the miserable is still, you know, valley of tears.

***

All of y’all need to get yourself to Mass today, because it’s an HDO.  And I know sometimes that’s not possible, or it’s possible but it’s not easy, or you honestly forget, because you didn’t goof off on the proper internet sites in time . . . so many different opportunities for offering up the disappointments or frustrations of a double-glorious day.  And if you’re looking for a cause towards which to direct your prayers . . . I could use a few.  Thanks.

Jen.

3.5 Time Outs: Unexpected

I almost wasn’t going to post today, but the awesomenity of Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy convinced me.

Click and be amazed.

1.

When someone makes you feel like crawling into a hole?  It’s really nice to have other people for friends.  Thank you, friendly people, for being out there.

2.

We’ve guessed all summer that there was a hummingbird’s nest in our apple tree, because Mrs. Hummingbird has been especially aggressive about chasing off birds that get to close to her portion of the tree.  The little guy has started coming out now, and here’s the funny bit: He sits down to drink.

3.

<insert your item here>.  We’re going to Chik-Fil-A.

3.5

Book department update: Good news, hopefully to be announced this time next week?

***

And with that, I’m back to regular life.  I’ll keep y’all in my prayers, and I’m trying to work through my blogging backlog in addition to doing all the other stuff I need to do, so look for me to pop in with this or that, time permitting.  Have a great week!

(And yes, you can post links.  I am, by the way, reading comments.  Oh, about once a week, but I am.  And trying to reply as well.)

Goofy things bloggers get excited about.

Okay so I was exceedingly flattered when Catholic Lane asked if they could reprint my homeschooling post from CatholicMom.com.  Which they did, today.  I was like, Wow! I’m on Catholic Lane!

(Nothing really to report to you, my faithful readers, who already had heard about it once.  But I was going to tell you anyway.  Because, you know, anything exciting to me = bloggable.)

Ha, but then, the stupendous part: It was picked up by the Pulp.it.

The rest of you who get featured at the Pulp.it all time, just go ahead and have a laugh at my expense.  *I’m* excited.  Happy Friday!

Patron Saint of Dark Humor

Don’t already know the joke? Click and be amused.

Happy feast day to Larry D., Larry L.! And all the other Lawrence-y types, except those of you who’ve taken on one of the dozen or so saints also by that name.  Note that martyrdom seems to be the common theme.  Just sayin’.

Artwork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lawrence-before-Valerianus.jpg [Public Domain]

3.5 Time Outs: Not Chicken

Thanks once again to our host, Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who must have conspired to trick me into posting today.

Click and be amazed.

1.

The reason I’m posting is because in my ten minutes of goofing off, I found this link for you, via Allie’s dad:  This is the Allie Hathaway for whom you’ve been praying. See?  Totally worth it.

2.

Since the arrival of the chickens, I’ve been noticing how much better we understand the English language now that we have two hens in our yard.  So here’s the discovery today:  Our chickens, who are indeed chicken when it comes to many things, managed to scare away the cat.  Because apparently, in addition to being catty (which we knew – ouch), she’s also a fraidy-cat.  I guess that tells you how to rank your insults, when measuring cowardice.

3.

I already knew, before Sunday, that Brandon who writes at Siris is the smartest guy I read.  (I only read him some of the time — he exceeds me mightily more often than I like.)

But so, here’s the thing, and I’m not sure how bloggable this is, because I don’t want to embarrass too many philosophers in one day, or alienate real-life friends . . . I had a different philosopher tell me this, and I paraphrase:  “I noticed sometimes you link to Brandon’s blog.  He’s the smartest guy I know.  He teaches at this community college, and he doesn’t publish except on his blog . . . and he’s the smartest philosopher out there.”

Plus, he’s 238 in dog years.

3.5

Book department update: I’m editing like a crazy person trying to make my book deadline AND be happy with the final product.  Meanwhile, this morning at Mass the reading was about Peter walking on water, and not walking on water, and yeah, just what I needed.  Pleasantly surprised later this afternoon when good things happened exactly where I was afraid everything was going to fall through.

(Um — even though it didn’t matter? I have special nervousness powers. But you know, the thought of trying something and failing? It’s daunting.  It is.)

In defense of Peter: Neither chickens nor cats would’ve gotten out of the boat to begin with.

***

And with that, I’m back to regular life.  I’ll keep y’all in my prayers, and I’m trying to work through my blogging backlog in addition to doing all the other stuff I need to do, so look for me to pop in with this or that, time permitting.  Have a great week!

(And yes, you can post links.  I am, by the way, reading comments.  Oh, about once a week, but I am.  And trying to reply as well.)

Book Review: Christian LeBlanc’s The Bible Tells Me So

Christian LeBlanc gave me a review copy of his new book, The Bible Tells Me So: A Year of Catechizing Directly from Scripture, and I’ve already mentioned that it’s a good book and you probably want to buy it.  Today’s my day to tell you why normal, non-catechist people will like it, and then later I’ll post a catechist-type review over at AmazingCatechists.com.

What it is:  Christian put together a survey of the Bible course for his 6th grade religious ed class.  He uses the socratic method, and goes through the whole Bible in a year, explaining to the kids what’s in there, and how the Bible fits into our Catholic faith.  (Quite nicely, thank you.)  In addition to Bible history, he works in bits about the Theology of the Body, the sanctity of marriage, and loads of apologetics.  One of the key themes is how we find the Mass and the sacraments in the Bible.

The Format:  Each chapter is one class.  He starts at the beginning of the school year in Genesis, and walks you through each class as-presented.  (“Hey y’all, welcome to 6th grade . . .you are going to be miserable this year.”) The weird thing: This works.  I’ve been reading Christian’s blog for a long time, but mostly only sort-of reading it, because although the topics are good for me, the truth is that when I’m goofing on the internet, my brain wants to goof off.  And the class-dialog format requires paying attention, thinking, that kind of stuff.

In a book though, the narrative style comes into its own.  The book is large format (8.5″ x 11″), so there’s enough page there to hold some serious thought without overwhelming.  And books are meant for sit-a-spell reading.  You can settle in, dig into a chapter, and enjoy.

The other reason these lectures work better in a book than on a blog is that you get the whole year in a continuous flow.  I never felt like I was reading a blog-warmed over.  Just the opposite.  Even though I had read some (not all) of the ideas on the blog, when they are put together in a single work, and fully fleshed-out, the whole is far more than sum of the snippets.

Reading Level: Very comfortable.  The conversational style, and the fact that this is a class for sixth graders, makes this a great book for someone just digging into the Bible for the first time.  You don’t need to be a Catholic know-it-all before you start.  This would work as a textbook for a middle-school or older student who wanted to study the Bible at home, but the material is substantial enough that any adult would enjoy it.  Great option for a family Bible study.

What good for the non-Catechist?  Well, here’s what:  As it happens, this year our boy is starting the Bible History class that Kolbe does in 7th and 8th Grade.  And it’s been a while since the SuperHusband has done a full read through the Bible (and me? <cough cough> we’re not talking about that), and Jon’s never studied the Bible as a Catholic before.

[Though admittedly Jon has a feel for the Catholic view, since his reversion was due in part to all the unmistakeably Catholic things God stuck in His book.]

So the timing for us was perfect.  As we work through the Bible as a family, Jon & I can consult The Bible Tells Me So for ideas about discussion topics with the kids, things to point out, Mass-appreciation, all that.

Verdict: Pretty much an unqualified ‘buy’ recommend.  I mean, I guess if you didn’t really want to understand the Bible, or find out how Catholics read it, or something like that, you might want to avoid it.  Also if you hate humor.  Don’t read this book if you have broken ribs or nasty cough, and your doctor told you No Laughing.

FYI: Christian haunts this combox, so you can ask him any questions you have.