7QT: Out of Sync and a Link (or two)

So, instead of saving my pretty, happy, funny and real pictures from the Convent Blessing, and using them for {phfr} at Like Mother, Like Daughter, I used them on Tuesday. Instead of doing a What We're Reading Wednesday I wrote about our book on Thursday. I totally skipped 7QT Friday, but I have at least a few quick takes to do this morning.

In keeping with my Out Of Sync Week, here is my version of 7 Quick Takes for A Saturday Morning.

1: Nick Names
I promised to explain about Sister Joseph Andrew's nick name "Sister Bone Breaker". Don't worry, it wasn't very widely known or used. But it was very apt.

Back in the day--when I was single and living in Ann Arbor and Sister was after me to attend a discernment retreat and I was hedging and making excuses, I thought I had the prefect excuse. My friend Laurie was coming to visit. She would be flying in the day the retreat was to begin. Sr. Joseph Andrew slyly offered to pray that, if it was God's will, I would be able to attend the retreat. I smugly assumed God's will had already been decided.

When the day of the retreat arrived, I get a call from Laurie. She is at the airport and her flight has been delayed due to frost--or it may have been diverted--but anyway, after an hour or two of hemming and hawing and multiple phone calls she decided to stay home that weekend.

Seriously.

I HAD to go to the retreat.

When I showed up and told Sister Joseph Andrew she smiled knowingly, and told me she had another girl coming who had the same excuse as me only her friend BROKE HER ARM and couldn't come to visit.

So, the other girl---don't know who she was---and I were both prayed into the discernment retreat by a Sister whose prayers were, apparently, so powerful they could stop air travel AND break bones.

2: Link #1
I found the following link at Conversion Diary and was moved by the blogger's story. You will be too. I promise: I'm no theologian.

3: Link #2
Here is a humorous, and mostly accurate, explanation of the entitled generation of young people trying to flood the job market these days: Generation-y-unhappy.

4: Safety Moment
At work, Jim and his co-workers have what they call "Safety Moments". In the oil industry, not paying attention to safety can cost lots of money, and more importantly, it can cost lives. So they are interested in making sure everyone, across the business is safety minded. A "Safety Moment" is when a presenter at a meeting shares some story of safety--or un-safety--to inspire folks to pay attention.

The most common safety reminder in our house is to "hold onto the railing while going up or down stairs". We are always after the kids, especially when they are toting toys from one floor to the other with no free hand to hold on with. So, yesterday morning, 7yo A was on her way down stairs, with a stuffed animal in one hand and the letter that the stuffed animal had written in the other, when she apparently missed the first step. We heard the sound and it was scary. According to her story, she feel from the top to the first landing, about 10 steps.

Being prone to drama, her crying was LOUD and it took a few minutes to be sure there was nothing seriously wrong. We quickly narrowed down the pain to her ankle and she was moved to the couch to rest. By the afternoon we were pretty sure we had at least a good sprain so we headed to the local Walk-in Clinic---make sure you walk, don't run, 'cause you'll be waiting awhile anyway.

After hours of waiting and a few minutes with a doctor in one office and an x-ray technician in another location, we had the diagnosis: sprain. Cure: off load the ankle for two weeks.

A was a trooper until she heard she needed crutches. For some reason that induced lots of weepy objections. When she had calmed down I was able to get an explanation out of her: "When I picture myself in crutches I just don't like it."

I don't think it is a vanity thing, I think it is a fear thing--it makes her feel like something is wrong and she is worried about that.

We haven't gotten any crutches yet, but the plan is to find some today. I don't think I can carry her everyplace all week, so we will persevere in the search for a mobility assist.

7: No, I didn't skip 5 and 6. Check my math below.

Since #1 and #4 were so long I will count them each as two. So that makes....let me count two plus one more, plus another, plus two more is six. So this is seven.

Quick take #7 is just to say that I will belatedly link to Jen over at Conversion Diary. And, though I don't want to be a weird fan-girl or anything, I just have to say I spotted Jen at the Convent Blessing, though she left before I could go over and ask for her autograph.

No--I would really do that. But, I may have introduced myself if I had a chance---or any guts. Instead I stared and pointed.

Yah. Weird, huh?

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Mind the Gap

I read a blog post (linked below) this past week that really spoke to me. It was an analogy for the differences between school, school-at-home, and what some people call "un-schooling". 

I admit the first thing that attracted me to this blog post was the title. For those who are not familiar with it when you take a train or subway in the U.K. you see signs like this:

(please excuse the grainy iPod photo)
This is a doorway upstairs in our house. The poster at the top is like the signs you see in the Tube stations. The map on the right is a London Tube Map. 

It refers to the gap that exists between the train and the platform edge. In fact, when you are in the tube stations of London there is a repeated recorded voice that says: "Mind the Gap between the train and the platform edge." I have very fond memories of D, with his sweet little three year old voice and his very slight British accent, repeating these words over and over again. 

This blogger has used the phrase and the idea of riding a train, as opposed to a car or bike, to explain the different approaches to education. 

It's like someone hands you a train schedule when you are five years old, and it details the plan for every day of the next thirteen to seventeen years of your life. The stops are laid out, the timetable is set. There is only one set of tracks for your school train.They are the same for everyone. They tell you this is the only way to get between stops, where you are tested to make sure the train is on schedule.

I find that in spite of having been a "train conductor" (school teacher) in the past, my inclination for my own children is the bicycle approach. 

Her image of the family riding bikes together, exploring the world around them at a more leisurely place, with older kids having some freedom to explore--to steer their bike, to pedal at their own pace-- is exactly how we like to see ourselves. 

You learn from all things you do, but the learning does not need to be measured. Your parents don't keep track of how fast or how far you go each day...You don't have to keep up with anyone else.

Development--growing up--is not a race. Yet we spend so much time, as a society, worrying about our kids keeping up. 

I am not just talking about the world of "you have to get into the right pre-school if you are going to get into that great college" or "if you haven't started competitive football by the age of five you may as well give up". 

I am also talking about reading fluently by kindergarten (or even first or second grade) about doing algebra in third grade. 

So much of what we think of as academic is really developmental. If we had a more relaxed approach to when a child reads fluently, we may see a decrease in learning disability labels, or at least a decrease in kids wearing glasses. If we had a more relaxed approach to math instruction, we might have fewer grown-ups who "hate math" or think they are "bad at math".

Opting out of the race, getting off the train, so to speak can be very difficult. The world around you assumes that your objective is to make sure your kid is "on schedule" and that there are "no gaps". Our objective is to raise children who love God first, know how to love others as well as themselves, and love to learn. 

Love does not keep a schedule, arrive at certain stops at certain times, or stick to one set of tracks. Love is free.

Go. Read. She explains the analogy really well. 

{pretty, happy, funny, real} Books Edition

{pretty}

"It was born then, this idea that I must have books, not only for our children but for Abigail and myself. We must not lose touch with that we were, with what we had been, nor must we allow the well of our history to dry up, for a child without tradition is a child crippled before the world. Tradition can also be an anchor of stability and a shield to guard one from irresponsibility and hasty decisions."

From To The Far Blue Mountains by Louis L'Amour

 {happy}

 "What books then? They must be few, for the luggage of books is no easy thing when they must be carried in canoes, packs, and upon one's back.Each book must be one worth rereading many times..."

From To The Far Blue Mountains by Louis L'Amour

{funny}

When I told the kids I was trying to think of a "funny picture about books" for my blog post, they thought this was perfect. It is from the kids version of The Last of the Mohicans.

{real}

Is it possible to have too many books? 

We don't have the problems that Barnabas Sackett had. 

So far I haven't had to load our books onto a canoe or carry them on my back. 

But there is a part of me that envies the economy of his proposed book collection. 

Few.

Great books.

To be read again and again. 

Just to be clear, the above is from inside my own head, not from a Louis L'Amour book.

  {happy}

We are currently reading this as a family at bedtime. The quotes on this page come from a point in the book when Barnabas Sackett is contemplating his move to the new world, where he hopes to make a life for himself and start a family with his betrothed, Abigail. 

"...each a book that has much to say, that can lend meaning to a life, help in decisions, comfort one during moments of loneliness. One needed a chance to listen to the words of other men who had lived their lives, to share with them trials an troubles by day and by night in home or in the markets of cities."

From To The Far Blue Mountains by Louis L'Amour

Click on over and enjoy the other {phfr} posts!