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By Nod on February 7th, 2010 | Category: Family Life, ParentingWhile Mrs. Nod and I worked on shoveling out 30 inches of snow from the driveway, I sent Wynken and Blynken out back to clear away the heat pump. After warning them to be careful of the nearby outside basement steps, I returned to my grueling task.
Not five minutes go by when Wynken comes rushing up and says “Blynken fell down the basement steps and now she’s stuck!”. I rushed to the back and sure enough, she fell down the well of the stairs into the drift, arms and legs akimbo. Not only that, she lost her boot in the process.
She handled it well and didn’t panic; thankfully she didn’t get hurt – just stuck. I scooped her up in my arms and carried her back into the garage and set her down safe and sound.
She says, “Thanks, Daddy.”
I said, “Don’t you know, I’ll always come for you?”
‘Cause, you know, that’s what Daddies do.
By Will on February 7th, 2010 | Category: MiscellaneousYou’ve probably heard before a topic I heard at church last night: that the way you think of God the Father has a lot to do with the way you think of your earthly father. Was your father neglectful? Then, until you learn better, you may think of God as distant. Did he rage? Was he violent? Then you may fear God’s wrath and fail to grasp his mercy. Etc.
As I heard this, I watched my baby boy Liam, and wondered what he would say if he were in a conversation about this, years from now.
For one thing, I need to be careful about him hearing me yell. Last night, driving with just him and me, I made a loud noise. He was in the back, but still, he went from being fussy about being in the back by himself into his hah-hah-hah I’m-so-upset-I-can’t-wait-to-take-a-breath wail. He didn’t used to react much to things outside himself; now he does — progress, but it means I have to watch out for (for example) sneezing, shouting, or other things that are too loud.
For another, I’ve already decided, when I go by the living room and he smiles and wants me to come in, I must come in for a moment at least. I don’t want him to feel unloved. And I recognize that that’s how I felt; I must not pass it on.
And this morning, I did play with him just before leaving, and kissed Marisa and left, and he cried. What’s up with that, me not waving and saying “bye-bye”? I thought he’d cry less if he didn’t notice. He thought he’d cry less if I said goodbye. He’s getting more aware. How could I be so dismissive?
When they were talking last night about this
By Rick on February 5th, 2010 | Category: Faith & SpiritualityThe classical spiritual writers call the culprit the predominant passion; behavioral scientists call them pre-neurotic tendencies. Bishop Eugene James Cuskelly in his book “A Heart to Know Thee” lists them below. What we can do is pick out the one that suits us and check ourselves. It’s like a car that’s veering to the side that needs to be pulled back constantly.
By Rick on February 3rd, 2010 | Category: Faith & Spirituality, Family LifeI try to instill the same spirit at home by asking my kids to help each other with their chores. While they have their assignments, they’re not allowed to say, “That’s not my job.” I set the example by helping my wife. When I come home and the house is filthy, I don’t complain. When I see my wife reading a magazine, I don’t resent that dinner is not ready. Instead, I sauté some meatballs then mix it with tomato sauce while boiling the water for the noodles – still in my work clothes. I know how it feels to stay home with 4 kids because I do it every Saturday when she works. And it helps. My wife feels loved and she continues to pass that to the kids.
By Nod on February 2nd, 2010 | Category: Family Life, FunAre you ready for some football?
The Nodlings enjoy watching football with dear old Dad. My boy, Wynken, likes football; the toddlers, Nub and Nib, love to shout “Touchdown!” on every play; the older girls, Blynken and Nod-girl, just like hanging out and eating my snack food.
So with one hand on the remote to avoid the commercials and one eye on my snack plate, we are getting ready to enjoy the Game-That-Must-Not-Be-Named-Due-To-Litigious-Copyright-Holders.
A major part of The Game ™ of course is the football food. Catholics everywhere will be watching (and eating) along with the rest of the nation at the biggest football game of the year.
Everybody’s got their favorite football food; Catholics are no exception. So how will you know if you’re at a Catholic Football Fest? Let’s take a look at a sample menu:
- Beer: choice of Don De Dieu (Gift of God) or Angel City Ale
- Saints 7-Sacramental-layer dip
- Hotter-than-Hades wings
- Dante’s Onion Rings of Hell
- Immaculate Reception drink holder
- St. Lawrence’s Barbeque Ribs
- Jalepeno Popers
- St. Stephen’s Stoned Wheat Crackers and Cheese
- Heavenly Hash ice Cream
- B16 Burger and Fries
- Crusader Chili Dogs
There have to be more! Your suggestions in the combox; let’s have some fun.
——–
Cross-posted at: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
By Joe2 on January 31st, 2010 | Category: Announcements, New BirthsI have never posted before on the site itself; mostly because I my first child wasn’t born yet 
So I proudly announce the birth of my first daughter:
Lucy Marian; Born: 21 Jan, 2010 @ 5:20am AKT; 7lbs 5.5oz, 20.5 inches
We had several names picked out but when she was born, she had her eyes WIDE open! (St. Lucy is the patron saint of eyes.) But the meaning is a little more than that. You see, Lucy comes from the Latin word for ‘light’ or ‘daylight.’ She was born in the dark of an Alaskan winter morning. The morning after my father passed away. He had been sick for sometime and my mom called me the morning of the 20th to let me know things did not look good. Obviously we could not fly home. Later that evening, I was about to pick up the phone to call my parents to let them know that my wife had started having contractions and gone into full labor. As I went to grab my phone, it rang. My mom informed me that my dad had died. It hit me like a ton of bricks obviously, but when I looked at the clock I realized that it was around 11:00pm down in Michigan. He knew… he didn’t wan’t to “ruin” our special day. That is just how he was. So I cried for a bit, my sister and my wife’s sister were here, and we took an hour to just grieve. But then as I know he would have wanted, I focused on my wife. 10 hours later our daughter was born.
So you see, Lucy is our lightness in the dark. They say the darkest part of
By Will on January 31st, 2010 | Category: ParentingI’m not. At least, I started out compliant and credulous and utterly malleable, and developed stubborness (as much as I could manage) in an environment of abuse.
Marisa never learned to be stubborn, and may God grant she never has to.
Liam more than makes up for it. We want him to learn to feed himself. (He’s got a deadline of March, or whenever #2 gets here. I do not want to be dealing with a newborn and having to put each bite into Liam’s mouth.) But his response has been, when we put a spoon in his hand, to push his arm out wide, lock his elbow, turn his face the other way, and scream!
For finger food, he has the same reaction. Pull the hand back, reject the food, object to the whole process.
So Saturday, we took a tip from Miss Donna (the helper who at one meal wouldn’t put his cup into his mouth till he touched it — and now he always reaches for it), and decided to make him eat some of his meal with both finger food in his fingers, and him holding his spoon. I prepared for a weekend battle.
I got one.
…except that(on the spoon issue) it only lasted one day. Now, you put that spoon in his hand and he pulls it into his mouth, and says, do it faster! faster! faster! As you might expect, it’s a horrific mess: rice all over the table and floor at lunch; plate thrown on the floor at dinner… well, the speech therapist said he needs to learn to play with his food! We knew it was coming.
But what I wasn’t prepared for was it working so quickly! Now we have to get him to use the spoon to pick up the food. He doesn’t
By Rick on January 31st, 2010 | Category: Faith & Spirituality
St. John Bosco (1888) may have scandalized others in his efforts to attract and educate boys. Rather than detaching himself from the world and limiting himself to priestly work, he got involved in contract negotiations with the employers of the exploited boys who flocked into the city from the countryside. Rather than wait for them to knock at the Rectory, he went out to find them in the alleys near liquor stores. Rather than keep himself so prim and proper with well starched vestments, he pulled his cossack up as he raced in the town square with the boys.
His attitude of change has been immortalized in the Rules of the Salesians. This has been why his order has thrived and grown to be the third largest in the world today.
To adapt to the needs of times requires the ability to read the “signs of the times“. Being stuck in age old ways is not fidelity; it can be blindness. If one is wearing shades, then everything is seen in that hue. When something fails, it is blamed on everything other than oneself.
I remember meeting two Salesians back in the 80s. The younger talked about the modem setup in the school while the older talked about the book binding shop. It is not good when people get stuck in a rut; because, if all they have is a hammer, then everything else looks like a nail.
To innovate is risky. It is safer to be reactionary, to sit back and wait for the innovator to fail. But as St. Theresa of the Avila wrote, “One who makes no mistakes, makes nothing.” People nowadays are severely criticizing the experiments and abuses
By DavidofOz on January 31st, 2010 | Category: Family Life, Parenting
Big Brothers are Great
We had a guest the other night joining us for dinner. After the meal when the children were cleaning up and washing dishes, our guest asked, “Don’t your children fight?”
Lana and I looked at each other and pondered.
“Not really,” we replied, “They have occasional disagreements but these get sorted out pretty quickly.”
“Don’t they yell or scream at each other?” our guest asked in amazement.
“Rarely, but we stomped on that behaviour very early on and now they have learned appropriate conflict resolution skills. Also, when the children fight over something – a toy, a game or anything – we will get the object in dispute and tell them ‘If this is causing you to fight, we don’t want this thing in our home’ and then throw it in the bin. Pretty quickly the children learned that it wasn’t worth fighting over ’stuff’”
“Hmm,” he said, sitting back and watching the children singing off key – but loudly – and obviously enjoying themselves while they were cleaning up.
That is one advantage of homeschooling. Rather than being thrown into the school jungle with no direct adult supervision, they are able to learn from adults when the problems occur, as memories are fresh and actions are obvious and not distorted by time and emotion. Of course, the pressure is on Lana and I to grow up too, which was probably the hardest part. We can’t expect them to follow appropriate problem resolution techniques if we are squabbling over stupid little things.
“Ahh, but what about when they get in the ‘real’ world? How about then huh?”
We actually believe
By The Dutchman on January 28th, 2010 | Category: Family Life
On 5 March 2003, I came home and, right after I closed the front door, my Bean-Girl ran up to me stark naked and give me a big hug.
So I ask, “Why are you naked?”
“Because I haven’t got any clothes on!”
You may or may not think this is cute, but I do. After all, she’s my daughter. And you might be wondering how I know exactly what day it happened on. That’s because I wrote it down. In the kitchen, right underneighth a pile of un-read newspapers (mostly the Wanderer) and magazines (Harper’s, Mother Jones) and whatever book I’m reading (Nolte’s Three Faces of Fascism) you will find my current note-book where I write down everything almost as soon as it happens.
On the same page as Bean-Girl’s clever tautology, I have other things she said or did:
• Breakfast 3/7/3: sausage, chocolate crêpes, pickles.
• 3/16/3 calls tortillas “Taco Buns”
• Visit to Nature Museum 4/7/3: “Let’s split up into one group.”
Kids do these things and you are convinced that they are the cleverest, funniest, cutest things ever, and that you will never forget them. But guess what? There are seven days each week, thirty or so days each month, and 365 1/4 days in each year and you do forget them. That is, unless you write them down.
Keep a note-book handy and, if it’s not at hand, write things down on scraps of paper or in your date book. Take a trip to the zoo or someplace interesting? Have them tell you their impressions over dinner and write them down. At the end of the year, I
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