Everyday Organics with the Kroger Co

Our local flavor of the Kroger Company is called Fred Meyer, and they've been one of the main stores I've shopped at since I was a kid. The Kroger Co. recently started a program called the MyMagazine Sharing Network, where participants who "qualify for missions" can receive free samples in exchange for sharing about the products. Free food is always helpful to our grocery budget, so I was quick to sign up! We just received the box for my first mission, "Organics Everyday." So here's what we tried, and what we thought of it!

In the box were individual-sized bags of Garden of Eatin' ranch and nacho chips, a full-sized bag of organic Tostitos, and a can of Bush's organic chickpeas. There were also coupons for free items that wouldn't have shipped well, like drinks.

We portioned out the Garden of Eatin' chips over several lunches. "So, healthy Doritos?" Matt laughed when he saw them, and yes, that's pretty much what they are; my kids have never had Doritos, though—any chips at all are a rare treat in our house—so I can't say whether they would have preferred one over the other, but they did enjoy these. Little Bear and Kit both liked the ranch version, and Kit enjoyed the nacho ones. Baby deemed the nacho ones non-offensive as well, which was a pleasant surprise, because lately I've had trouble finding anything to eat that doesn't make me feel sick.

The Tostitos taste like Tostitos... They're fine; like I said, we don't usually eat chips, so it's been a bit of a conundrum figuring out what to do with them all. I'm hoping that the baby is up for some fresh salsa, because I'm planning to run by the farmers market this afternoon and see if anyone has tomatoes. That sounds like a good accompaniment for tortilla chips!

The kids love helping me make hummus, and helping me eat it, but they run and hide in the other room when I turn on the food processor. One of these days, I'll manage to convince Little Bear that it's not that loud; he would have more fun helping in the kitchen, I know, if he wasn't scared of the noise it makes. We made up a quick batch of hummus with the chickpeas we received, and everyone has been enjoying it with raw veggies.

One thing that frustrates me greatly is how most brands that sell canned goods use BPA in the linings of their cans. When was the last time you saw a plastic container intended for food prep or storage that didn't say "BPA-free" on it? "BPA-free" is practically synonymous, in public perception at least, with "safe for use with food/drink." But how many brands of canned goods do you see the BPA-free label on? Hunt's, the tomato company, is one. I think I saw it recently on some Del Monte fruits, too. But most beans, vegetables, and canned meats, even organic varieties, are still being packed and subjected to high heat/pressure in cans lined with BPA. 

So when we got organic chickpeas in a can that didn't say BPA-free, I called the customer service line for Bush's to ask about it. And it turns out that they are now using cans with BPA-free linings for all of their beans! The lady I spoke with wasn't sure why they don't advertise the fact, but assured me that there was no BPA. I'm so glad! I try to use dried beans in my cooking anyway, but I usually keep a few cans of pre-cooked beans around for just-in-case times, and up until this point the only BPA-free beans I'd found are a bit more expensive and are only stocked by stores that are inconvenient for us to shop at. And I grew up eating Bush's baked beans, and have not yet managed to find a recipe for homemade baked beans that we like better.

There were coupons for a couple of types of teas and a soda? Carbonated lemonade? I'm not sure. I couldn't find them at the store, but honestly, they're not things we would buy anyway. That's true of almost everything we received, other than the chickpeas, though the kids were excited about the chips. But the "most appreciated item in the box" award goes to a sheaf of coupons for free/discounted items from Horizon Organics, which among other things sells half gallons of milk. I wish I could say that I tasted a difference between conventional and organic milk, but baby didn't like the granola I poured it over yesterday, so the best I can tell you is that it's good milk. At the rate we use milk, given that the baby isn't currently letting me make/eat yogurt (why, child?!?) and doesn't love granola, I shouldn't need to buy milk again until mid-August, at least!

If the Kroger Company was trying to use the "Organics Everyday" mission to encourage people to eat healthy or to show off the healthful options they offer, I think they missed the mark a little with their selection of samples; the chickpeas and milk are great, but everything else... organic junk food is still junk food, you know? But they do offer a lot of other healthy and organic options in their stores, and I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to learn about the Bush's cans, and grateful to not have to pay for milk for a while! 

School year wrap-up

I know it's a little early yet, but Little Bear finished the last few lessons in our books for the year last week, so here's a look at how our first school year went.

This year Little Bear was 4, and we were doing preschool. Although looking at these books, I'm realizing that at least half of our work was labeled as kindergarten this year. Regardless, he was 4, and we did school. (We're on paper as doing kindergarten next year, so I'm going to stick with the past year having been preschool.)

What we used:

Handwriting: Catholic Heritage Handwriting, Level K, from Catholic Heritage Curricula (CHC)

Phonics/Reading: Little Stories for Little Folks, from CHC

Science: Earth Science & Earthquakes: Hands-On Activities, from Ring of Fire

First Encyclopedia of the Human Body, from Usborne

Math: RightStart Mathematics, Level A

Religion: Who Am I?, teacher's manual and workbook B, from Ignatius Press

Plus a subscription to Raddish kids' cooking class, which included science, geography, world cultures, and other lessons along with the cooking lessons

What worked, and what didn't:

The handwriting book was on the short side, just 16 weeks; I think it was intended to be started partway through the year, after the students had spent a while working on letter recognition. We didn't need that practice, so I had Little Bear do half-pages each day instead of full pages, and in the last month or so we stepped up to 2/3-pages and full pages. He was almost always enthusiastic about starting out the school day with his handwriting, and I really liked that it's spiral-bound at the top, so the pages lay flat and there isn't a binding on the side getting in the way.

Little Stories for Little Folks is awesome. I'm so, so happy with it: we went through the first two levels of phonics readers in it this year, and will be doing the other two levels next year. (It's marketed as a two-year program, K-1.) Little Bear is now reading well enough that he can pick out Level 1 I-Can-Read books from the library, etc., and read through them all by himself, maybe needing help with one word every other page or so. We were looking at books at the thrift store earlier, and he was so excited to be able to find Level 1 books on the shelves and know that he'd be able to read them.

This was the second year that I put those two "hands-on activities" science books on my list of "things we're doing this year," and the second year that we stopped using them after one or two lessons. There's nothing wrong with them, necessarily; they just weren't a good fit for us. I'm going to find someone else to pass them on to, because I know I won't use them.

The Usborne encyclopedia on the human body, though: Little Bear picked that off a shelf of free books a couple of weeks ago, and has been SO INTERESTED in it. We're reading a two-page spread a day, and he makes sure that I don't forget! We've since found a copy of Usborne's First Encyclopedia of the World, and Little Bear is excited about starting to read that as soon as we finish the human body one.

Oh! I also picked up a DVD on Alaskan wildlife at last year's curriculum fair with the idea that we'd use it for science. It's just instrumental music with a collection of photographs and short video clips of animals and some plants from around the state, separated by region. We've mainly wound up using it once a month or so for times when the kids are making me crazy as I'm trying to make supper, so I turn it on and ask them to tell me all the animals they can identify. Little Bear can name a lot of them now, and while Kit doesn't usually sit still to watch, she'll come running whenever he tells her there are squirrels or bears or puffins. I should look for some Alaskan bird and animal guidebooks, so that we can look up the different animals we see and learn something about them.

The RightStart Mathematics book is another I'm certain I'll use again with Kit, because it worked so well for us. After finishing Level A, Little Bear can quickly solve simple math problems in his head, has a good understanding of coin values and adding with coins and dollars, can explain halves and quarters, and can read an analog clock (with a little prompting if the minute hand isn't right at :00, :15, :30, or :45). Matt was recently driving home with Little Bear from a trip to town, and Little Bear, apparently hungry, informed him: "Dad, it's 2:00. That means that it'll be supper time in four hours!" We didn't actually have the full set of math tools that goes with it, so I wound up using whatever we could find that was close enough, and it usually worked okay. We did have the geoboard and abacus, and couldn't really have done it without either of those; there were some learning games that we couldn't do because we didn't have the right equipment, but he seems to have gotten the concepts well anyway. We'll move on to Level B next year, and this time we'll be able to get everything that goes with it! I'm looking forward to that. 

The religion program worked really well for us, too. I was impressed by the content, the way it engaged the kids, and how Little Bear learned the material each week. Kit loved the action rhymes with each lesson, and was excited to be able to participate in those. Little Bear liked the workbook (partially because it was a little bit too easy for him, I suspect), but did a good job of paying attention and answering questions during the actual lessons, too. I'm planning to stick with this same program for kindergarten-level religion lessons next year.

And lastly, Raddish. The Raddish program is going to have to get its own post, because this one is getting long, but for now suffice it to say that Little Bear has learned a lot from Raddish this year and we'll definitely be continuing our subscription. In addition to making both kids even more interested in helping in the kitchen (and actually able to help), it also took up the slack for me on science, geography, and "social studies."

We're coming up on the annual curriculum fair here in town in another week or so, and I'm so happy to already have a handle on what curriculum I want to use with Little Bear next year for math, reading/phonics, and religion. I do need to put thought into science/geography/history/etc., and I'm hoping to find another kindergarten-level handwriting book with a spiral-binding at the top; hopefully there are other publishers doing that! I suppose I could also go with a PDF version, which I could take to the local print shop and have bound the way I want it. 

If you've homeschooled a kindergartner and have any suggestions for me, I'd love to hear them! Especially if you have any advice for doing so with antsy toddlers... Kit was all over me every time I sat down to do a math lesson with Little Bear this year, and I expect it'll be even more of a frustration for her next year.

A few of my favorite things...

It's that time of year again: snow melting, sun shining, children displaying astonishing speeds of getting soaked and filthy while playing somewhere you didn't think there even was any mud... And the annual Ultimate Homemaking Bundle! This year's bundle looks amazing. The resources are divided into: motherhood, organization and systems, faith, creativity, finances, home, in the kitchen, intentional living, marriage, recipies, self care, and work-life balance. 

"The Better Listening Workbook"? That one has Little Bear's name aaaaall over it. :-) Two books on deep cleaning/spring cleaning, which I've been itching to do (I know, I'm kind of weird) but have felt a little lost as to how to create a system for it in our new house. Two ecourses and a book all addressing different facets of photography, particularly taking and editing photos of our kids—I sure need help with that! And there are so many great cookbooks; I can't wait to find some new recipes to try.

I'm particularly excited about a couple of things:

• The Fit2B Foundational 5+ ecourse — my doctor recommended their program for my diastasis recti, but we couldn't afford the monthly subscription, so I was so happy to see this ecourse in the bundle!
• Making Big Life Changes Together, by Haley Stewart
• Family Chore System & Planner, by Mandi Ehman 
• A Mom's Guide to Better Photos ecourse, by Meg Calton

Just those four resources would cost $137 if I purchased them separately, but the whole bundle is only $29.97! That's amazing.

And there's so, so much more. Check it out! And if you're interested in what they have this year, and you prefer to read ebooks on an ereader/tablet/phone instead of a computer, consider picking up the bundle before Thursday night: Wednesday and Thursday, they're throwing in the .mobi (Kindle) and .epub (Nook/iBooks/Kobo) files for free with the .pdf files for the regular price of $29.97. Friday through Monday, it'll be an extra $10 to add on the ereader-format files.

Are you thinking about picking up a copy of this year's Ultimate Homemaking Bundle? Which resources are you most interested in?

Healthy Living

Harvest season and preparing for winter has me so swamped, y'all, I haven't had any time to sit down and write. Fall is so short here, and this year for the first time we have all of the getting-a-house-ready-for-winter work to get done on top of the storing-up-food-for-the-winter work. It's exciting! And crazy busy. I almost, not quite, but almost wish that the snow would just fall already and we could say "we got done everything we could" and I could just focus on all of the work inside instead of splitting my time and feeling like I'm not making enough progress inside or out.

So why are you sitting down to say that you don't have time to say anything? Fair question. I just had to pop in and remind anyone who might be interested and hasn't heard yet that this year's Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle went on sale today! I love these bundles---they are overflowing with resources on everything from cooking healthfully to taking care of kids to losing weight to managing hormones naturally... ebooks and online courses and even samples of products that are geared toward a healthy lifestyle. You can find the whole list here.

The first couple of times that I saw these bundles talked about, I waited until toward the end of the sale to pick them up; it took a while for me to convince myself that I would actually use enough of the included items to make it worth the price. Now, I know that I've definitely gotten so much more than my money's worth in the past few bundles, so I jumped on this one right away. And as a bonus for going for it right away, they are giving the .mobi (kindle) and .epub (most other ereader) files of all of the books, usually a $10 upgrade, to everyone who buys the standard package of .pdf files up until the end of the day tomorrow (Thursday) for free. I'm assuming that's midnight Eastern time, but my 40 Kbps connection won't load their webpage for me to confirm that right now... so if you know that you want the full bundle with the ebook formats, don't wait until the last minute!

A couple of things that I'm particularly looking forward to in this year's bundle:

- Complete Wild Edibles Package, a movie and ten ebooks on foraging by Sergei Boutenko
- Planning & Designing the Family Food Garden, by Isis Loran
- Real Food on a Real Budget: How to Eat Healthy for Less, by Stephanie Langford
- Living Healthy with Chocolate, by Adriana Harlan
- and all five resources on hormones and balancing them---there are three video courses, an audio course, and a book!

The Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle is only available until September 26, 2016---and the ebook files are only free until Thursday night!---so if this sounds like something you are interested in, don't miss out!

Did you already pick up a copy, or are you planning to? I'd love to hear which resources you are excited about!

Getting organized

Happy Easter! That... was a longer break than I'd intended to take. At least we're still in the Easter season, right?

The days are full, as ever, and we've settled into a fairly steady post-Lent rhythm wherein most things get done most days and I learn to let go of the other things that I thought needed doing but apparently didn't, because they didn't happen and we all survived. Blogging seems to have been one of the "let go" things, but I want to try and get back to carving out a spot for it in my week. I know from experience that there are some things that I can only "let go" for so long before it starts negatively impacting me, and using words and language creatively is one of those things. (More creatively than the "Don't try to get gunk out of your sister's nose!" conversations I have too frequently with the kids, I mean.)

Which is to say, this isn't exactly a real catching-up post so much as a brief but earnest promise that I'm going to try, and a completely unsolicited plug for a bundle of resources that happens to have a bunch of ebooks on the subject of organization and schedules! I love organization and schedules, and I'm actually geniunely looking forward to exploring different people's approaches to time management as I figure out how to bring back blogging and some of the other things that have been slipping. Not quite your cup of tea? You might want to pop over and check out the 2016 Ultimate Homemaking Bundle anyway: they have an incredible collection of more than 90 books and other resources on everything from budgeting to motherhood, meal planning to cookbooks to self care.

Actually, as much as I'm looking forward to the organizational books, it was something in that last category that bumped me from "I think I would get a lot out of a lot of these" to "where is my wallet?": a full eCourse on diastasis recti prevention and treatment. I had diastasis recti while pregnant with Kit, with sudden sharp, tearing pain across the top of my abdomen every evening for two weeks until I thought to mention it to my chiropractor; by that point, there was a gap several fingers wide in my rectus abdominus. I absolutely would buy the eCourse to learn how to help it heal and keep from going through that again! And just that one course retails for more than the cost of the entire bundle.

The 2016 Ultimate Homemaking Bundle costs $29.97, and it's only available until May 2. If you know you want it, though, go ahead and pick it up right away: until Thursday night, April 28, you get the .mobi (Kindle format) and .epub (other ereader format) versions of all of the books included for free, instead of as a $10 upgrade (the non-upgraded bundle includes the .pdf versions of the books, which definitely work—I only got the .pdf versions of the 2015 bundle last year, but if you plan to read them on an ereader or phone instead of reading on a computer or printing them, it'll be easier to read the versions that are actually formatted for a small screen.)

Anyway, I'm excited about this year's bundle! If you check it out, I'd love to hear what subjects they cover that interest you, and whether you wind up picking up a copy of the bundle for yourself. And hopefully I'll be back into the swing of posting regularly soon!

Life, death and fertility

This article has been sitting in an open tab in my browser for a week or two now, because I keep coming back to it. I'm not sure if I really have the right words yet, but rather than let it sit there for another week, I'm just going to write about it anyway. So go read this first, and then if you want my thoughts, come on back:

Can We All Just Agree That Fertility Is Not Small Talk?

Fertility, infertility, miscarriage, and the many ways random people seem to think it's okay to ask why you are or aren't pregnant right now. I agreed with her premise, for the most part; when, why, and how many children a couple have or may eventually have certainly isn't at the same level of inconsequential chatter as the weather or a new haircut. So no, it's not "small talk." I still can't quite wrap my mind around the idea that people honestly don't realize that when they ask questions about number of present, expected or future children, they're tangentially asking questions about your fertility and marital relationship—Could the connection be any more obvious?

BUT. The implication was made, and I've seen this in so many, many other articles about infertility and miscarriage, that these aren't things that can be talked about. That a woman or a couple struggling with infertility or the loss of a child or children has no real way of answering casual questions about when they plan to have a kid. It makes the conversation "mighty uncomfortable." I have to ask, is there something intrinsically wrong with "uncomfortable"?

Now I in no way mean to say that anyone should have to share any of that struggle with anyone they don't want to! Not at all. Your experience is yours, personal, unique, intimate, and if you don't want to talk about it, if sharing it makes you uncomfortable, then you don't have to. 

But there are some things people need to be aware of, even if hearing about them makes them uncomfortable. Miscarriage and infertility are on that list. And I do want to talk about it. To acknowledge my daughter in heaven. To share my experience of miscarriage, of the pain and loss, the uncertainty and confusion, the slow growth of faith and trust in God. The crippling fear that I wouldn't be able to conceive again, or that if I did I would lose another baby. The continuing worry that'll probably always be there in the back of my mind now, the it could happen again. I want to be able to, to be "allowed" to, remind people who believe that fertility is something easily controlled that, for many women, this is blatantly untrue.

I hate that this is such a taboo subject, that young wives and mothers experiencing infertility, secondary infertility, miscarriage, are made to feel even more isolated than need be because no one will talk about it, no one is "allowed" to freely acknowledge it. One in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. Women should not be blindsided by miscarriage, never having even considered the fact that it could happen to them, never having known that anyone else they know has gone through it. It shouldn't be impossible for a woman who, shell-shocked after learning that her baby has died in utero, is online looking for now what? to find other women's stories, support, answers to the million fragments of questions she doesn't necessarily even know how to put together coherently.

According to the CDC, 12% of American women of childbearing age struggle with infertility. I couldn't find a solid statistic on men, but it's definitely not a women-only issue. How many of these people, do you think, were even aware that infertility was a possibility before they started having trouble conceiving? Our culture focuses so heavily on the idea that babies "happen" all the time with no effort even when you're trying to avoid them; even for many young Catholic couples going into marriage with a solid grasp of the Church's teaching on openness to life, there's often a belief that you, you the couple, have to make a choice between "having children immediately" and "using NFP to postpone children for ---- months/years." Matt and I certainly never heard anything in our marriage preparation about there being any possibility/likelihood of not being able to have children. And I'd never even heard of secondary infertility until after my miscarriage last year. 

We do a disservice to women and to couples when we all collectively refuse to acknowledge these struggles. To those currently struggling, by making them feel alone and denying those who need it emotional, spiritual,or material support, and to those who will face these struggles in the future by not acknowledging that they exist. Ignoring problems doesn't make them go away; it makes people less prepared to deal with them when they happen. Look at those numbers again. Miscarriage is common. Infertility is common. Even if you don't realize it, there is a very high chance that someone you know, someone you see every week at church, has endured one or both. It makes logical sense that the secular, Culture of Death society doesn't acknowledge these women's loss, but it's scandalous when otherwise pro-life Catholics do not recognize and validate their struggles.

Growing up in a large family, surrounded by other large families, it was pretty much impossible to not absorb something of a defensive attitude about large families and Humanae Vitae. The mentality of "Following God's will concerning fertility means having a large family. Period." became a subconscious self-defense mechanism as we got older, hearing the same disparaging comments over and over, receiving the same shocked and disapproving looks, as our mothers continued having kids. You certainly heard judgments made from time to time about "double income no kids" couples, about well-off families with just one or two children, how they were obviously using contraception, or misusing NFP selfishly, or even that they simply didn't realize the beauty and importance of trusting God. It never occurred to us that those families could be wanting children, or more children, and were unable to have them. And by the time we were old enough to be judging others on their family size, we were old enough that we should have been made aware of the reality and commonness of miscarriage and infertility, as well as the scope and breadth of reasons a couple not struggling with miscarriage or infertility might legitimately seek to avoid pregnancy.

To automatically assume the worst of a couple with few or no children, to choose to believe that they are disobeying Church teaching on fertility without giving consideration to the fact that they could be struggling with crosses we don't see, is absolutely unchristian. And to support the social nicety of not talking about "uncomfortable" things like miscarriage and infertility denies those who might otherwise have shared their struggles the opportunity to be welcomed and supported by the community instead of feeling judged or shunned. I know that most people honestly aren't aware of infertility and miscarriage, of their prevalence or of how to support those struggling with them. But that won't get better if no one will talk about it!

I cannot refer to this baby as my second. I can't. She isn't, she's my third, and I'm not able or willing to force myself to say otherwise. Recently Matt had to submit a brief bio to the parish office for something, and the question of how to describe our family came up. "Just say two kids," pretty much everyone I asked said. "You don't need to make it complicated, to confuse people." And I listened, and nodded, and said no. We have three kids, one is in heaven. How is that confusing? We eventually reached a compromise; the copy I sent to the parish read that Matt and his wife, Rosalie, have a 2-year-old son and are expecting a baby in June. No mention of Alex, but not denying her existence either.

I'm not happy that I did that. I may not have outright denied Alex, but I still caved to the social order that says that I can't mention her because hearing that I have a baby in heaven will make people uncomfortable. Is that how these people-who-would-be-uncomfortable want their families and friends to behave after they die, to never talk about them and pretend they never existed? Of course not.

We're all going to die, y'all. Every single one of us. Past generations had an awareness of death and eternity that we, in our culture of frantically avoiding even the appearance of aging, have lost. Many Catholics, too, have lost the sense of the beautiful mystery and connectedness that is the Communion of Saints. Hopefully, opening the door to a broader conversation about miscarriage as well as infertility will—in addition to reminding us all how important it is to refrain from judging others—help us to build up the recognition of how precious life is at every stage, and of the fact that those who die, no matter how long or short their life, are still a part of our lives. The way we relate to them changes, but we are still truly connected with them, and will be forever.

Curriculum fair recap

The short version: the curriculum fair was fun and there are lots of possible curricula and supplemental materials that I'm excited about. If curricula just isn't that interesting to you, I won't be offended if you skip today's ramblings!

Yesterday was curriculum fair day! Matt needed the car so that he could go in and take his final after work—which he passed with a much higher score than he expected!—so I decided to keep our lives sane and skip the preschool/kindergarten presentation I'd planned to attend at the curriculum fair yesterday morning. We just didn't need the craziness of trying to coordinate trading out the car midday or me driving him to his final and then having to burn an uncertain amount of time downtown with a hungry kid while Matt took the test.

It was for the best. Little Bear wound up not falling asleep until 11 Monday night, and woke up just in time to run out and give Matt a hug before he left for work. We had a peaceful morning and evening at home, and in the middle of the day my mom and the kids picked us up to go to the curriculum fair with them. Going with two aunts and an uncle meant that Little Bear had plenty of people to run around and play with him while Mom and I actually looked at books and materials and talked with vendors. And sat down, in my case. Lots of sitting down. I was thankful for all of the chairs!

Many vendors had little free stuff to draw kids to their tables; you know, the kind of stuff that kids are sure is the neatest thing ever for two days and then it clutters up your house until you finally toss it. Little Bear brought home a squishy ball/globe (c/o BYU independent study), a balsa wood glider (c/o Oak Meadow), a small polar bear (c/o University of Alaska distance ed), and three brightly colored erasers shaped and decorated like dice (c/o Interior Distance Education of Alaska [IDEA], the organization that hosts the fair). And a set of little plastic dogs that he found at the booth of a local homeschool supply store and managed to convince Grandma that he needed. For school, of course! (Pretty much anything can be a "math manipulative" at the preschool level, right? He did come right home and start counting them into and out of his dump truck...)

IDEA's Parent Advisory Council had a table set up for kids, too; volunteers supervised kids while they colored or did simple projects so their parents could look at materials for next year. I love the family-friendly atmosphere of the fair—there's definitely no expectation that moms leave their kids at home! I saw lots of strollers, and even more babies in slings or carriers. Middle school-aged boys were flying their gliders around along a wall without any vendors or much foot traffic. Several of my brother's friends joined him in kicking the little ball back and forth with Little Bear, and they all looked like they were honestly enjoying themselves.

I picked up information from a couple of vendors, mostly stuff that Little Bear won't be old enough for for a couple of years but I wanted to talk about with Matt: several early elementary science programs full of hands-on experiments that the two of them might enjoy, a manipulative-heavy math curriculum that my mom has used with good results for the first few years with my youngest siblings, a collectible trading card game that teaches world and American history called Historical Conquest. Would kids really willingly play something like that? That was among my first thoughts too, but the game's creator had a steady stream of elementary and middle school boys at his booth eagerly playing or waiting their turn to play in a tournament with the sample decks he'd brought. The illustrations are pretty well done, the kids all seemed to be having fun, and you actually have to learn about people, places and events from throughout history to play successfully. Once Little Bear is old enough (so not until he's reading fluently), we're definitely picking up a starter set for him. 

Also for the "look what's available as Little Bear gets older!" file, I brought Matt a flyer from the Mad Scientist Workshop, where local science teachers offer workshops and classes in everything from K-2 level basics of biology to high school computer science, robotics, or metallurgy and knife making. Knife making. 

The Etiquette Factory's materials looked interesting, but unfortunately the vendor was in another room giving a presentation while we were walking around (on "Teaching our boys to be gentlemen," which makes it sound like a program I want to learn more about!) I didn't get a chance to flip through their beginner-level book, and I'm not seriously considering picking it up for another year or two, but I do really like their placemats:

How great are those for teaching kids to set the table properly? There's way more silverware laid out there than Little Bear will probably ever see at one place setting, but it would sure be helpful to be able to point out to him "See, your cup goes waaaaay up there, far away from the edge of the table." I think my mom has a couple that she picked up several years ago and her kids don't use, so we might be able to use one of hers.

I already have two of Ring of Fire Science's PreK-2 level activity books (earthquakes and earth science) that I'm planning to use this coming year (or more accurately, that I'm planning to hand to Matt and say, "Have fun!"), but I was excited to see that they have quite a few other books for that age range now, including the science of flight, volcanoes, and dinosaurs. Good to know that they're available for the following couple of years!

So ultimately, I had fun looking at a lot of things and found a bunch of good ideas for the future, but nothing we needed for this year. The two books from Ring of Fire that I already have should be plenty of science for a 3 year old, and for where he is now I'm happier with the math and literacy materials I've found from Catholic suppliers (Catholic Heritage Curricula and Seton Press). Maybe we can pick up a simple field guide or two on Alaskan birds and plants, and then join him in being excited about learning the names of things we see while we're out this summer, since he's been starting to ask. He likes "school," I like that he likes learning; I'm going to let his interest level dictate how much actual school we do, and have a laid-back, fun school year so that he continues enjoying it.

Ultimate Homemaking Bundle

This weekend completely got away from me; I meant to post about this awesome collection of resources, and now we're almost out of time: It's only available through midnight Eastern time tonight! I know a lot of other bloggers have been talking about the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle, so hopefully most of you have already had a chance to hear about it and decide whether you're interested. But in case you haven't heard of it, here's a quick summary:

The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle is a collection of 76 eBooks, 6 eCourses, 2 online conferences, an audio download, and a bunch of printables to educate homemakers on a wide variety of subjects and offer practical ways to actually implement that knowledge and make homemaking simpler and less stressful. They have resources covering everything from cleaning to finances, cooking and meal-planning to marriage and motherhood. Plus, several generous donors have added on gifts for mom or the family: a kids craft, a cheerful spring scarf, a choice of several online crafting classes, and more.

And it's only $29.97, for everything! That was too good a deal for me to pass up, and I've already begun reading and enjoying some of the eBooks.

One note: Nine of the eBooks are about faith, and since this isn't a specifically Catholic bundle, I'm assuming they are from an Evangelical Protestant perspective. Not to say that they won't necessarily have value--I'm planning to read them, and am particularly interested in the two books about teaching/developing character in our children--but I just wanted to put that out there; it's always possible that some of the content will be contrary to Church teaching.

Have you already picked up the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle? I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you've read so far!

(Just to be clear, I'm not receiving anything for talking about the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle--I'm just excited about it and wanted to make sure everyone else had a chance to look into it before it's gone!)

Idea of a cooking magazine

Ever since a friend brought me a copy of the Food Network Magazine to read in the hospital following Little Bear's birth, we've been subscribers. Matt and I both studied design in college, and have enjoyed discussing/debating the layout and visual choices of FNM's editors. How colors are used to influence the viewer's perception, why a page was arranged the way it was, what added meaning that wood-grain background gives the image of a particular dish. I can't tell you how publication design and graphic design vary, exactly, but they definitely do or we wouldn't have so many times where one of us is just sure that they did something wrong, and the other thinks it's the most logical thing they could possibly have come up with. It's fun.

We didn't just read it for the design, of course; we both enjoy cooking, and several recipes we found in FNM have made it into my index card recipe file. But as much fun as we have reading it, we've realized that by and large, we've stopped cooking from it. Stopped finding any recipes that we wanted to try, or that didn't have exotic or expensive ingredients that we couldn't justify buying. It's seemed, too, that there is a focus on "new," "unique," "innovative" types of recipes, which generally isn't our style—give me good old-fashioned classic recipes any day. The kale-centric latest issue was the breaking point; I read all the way through without finding a single recipe that I even considered making.

The same day, a free sample issue of Cook's Country magazine showed up in the mailbox.

Clean lines, earth tones, modular layout. Classic foods, feature articles that really interested us, an in-depth explanation of the how's and why's of many of the recipes. They even had 16 removable recipe cards for 30-minute suppers—full suppers!—a concept I remember and miss from the Taste of Home magazines my mom subscribed to when I was a kid. The removable recipe cards, that is. And pretty much all of them were exactly the type of foods we enjoy. I was sold.

Cook's Country is much shorter than Food Network Magazine; the CC trial issue had 32 pages (not counting the removable cards), compared to the 122 pages of the current (Jan-Feb) FNM, which was itself a lightweight after the roughly 250-page Dec issue. CC does not have any ads, though, which make up a substantial amount of FNM's bulk. FNM also uses a larger typeface than CC, and employs much more white space. Both magazines are comparably priced for a year's subscription, although CC prints 6 issues a year to FNM's 10.

After reading through Cook's Country, and looking back at the recent issues of Food Network Magazine, we've decided that Cook's Country is a better fit for our interests and cooking style. I switched our subscription today, and look forward to making many of the recipes in this issue shortly!

A few other things we like about Cook's Country: 

• Their test kitchen makes each recipe a minimum of 20 times, to be sure that it really works—and with many of the recipes, they'll tell you what shortcuts or alterations didn't work and why.

• Each issue, they review and rank several varieties of a food you'd buy at a grocery store, using only common brands everyone can find—this issue it was mayonnaise—talking about healthfulness, taste, quality, and other factors.

• There's a pictorial recipe index on the back cover, so you can find whatever recipe you're looking for without first having to find the table of contents!

• The focus is all on food and cooking.

If I was the layout editor of a cooking magazine, it would pretty much look like this. (And I would probably be told that it's very technically correct, but a little boring, and to go try again ;-)  If I was in charge of content, so far I haven't seen anything I'd change. It's definitely not what everyone is looking for, is certainly on the old-fashioned side, but I am exactly their target audience and I'm so happy to have discovered this magazine.

[This post was not sponsored in any way; I'm just excited about finding this new-to-us magazine, and thought we probably weren't the only ones who had never heard of it before and might enjoy it.]

Sportsmanship

I was startled and disappointed by the many snide and gloating comments about the NFC championship game that I saw on Facebook last night from fans of the Minnesota Vikings. Yes, Green Bay lost. And yes, the Packers and Vikings are rivals. But the rudeness didn't make any sense.

I grew up in a house divided, split pretty evenly between Packer and Viking fans. We took football seriously, watched all the games, knew our players' stats, took pride in keeping track of our team's regular-season standings. Packer-Viking games in our house were events. But when the playoffs came around, if the Packers were out of the running it was a given that we would join them in rooting for the Vikings, and vice versa, because we were still the same division. You cheered for whoever in the NFC North was still a Super Bowl contender, because obviously you want to be able to say your team is from the best division.

In the same way, it seems absurd to me that people assume I'll be cheering for the Patriots in this year's Super Bowl because the Seahawks beat my Packers. Of course I'm cheering for the Seahawks, because they're from the NFC. Loyalty to my team means loyalty to their division and their conference. On February 2, I want to be able to say that the Packers lost in overtime to the strongest team in the NFL this year (but we'll be better than them next year).

Cheering for a team is good. Morally neutral, I suppose, but a fine thing to do. Cheering against a team, though, saying "I don't really care about team X winning but I hope team Y loses because I hate them," is unsportsmanlike. 

Yesterday's was a good game, exciting to watch, keeping our attention down to the last minute. I'm not sure how many times we commented that "it's not over yet" in reference to both teams' chances. The Packers played very well right from the beginning, despite the poor weather conditions. The Seahawks made an impressive comeback—I think one of the commentators said it was among the biggest conference championship comebacks on record. The last few minutes of regular game time, it could absolutely have gone either way, and then overtime. If the only thing you enjoyed about the game is the fact that the Packers lost, I can't imagine that you actually like football.

Or that you really like the Vikings, for that matter, except as a tool for expressing a petty sort of statism. "Ha, my team's rivals lost, because they're losers from Wisconsin." Seriously?

Party time

The Green Bay Packers (my favorite team) are competing right now with the Seattle Seahawks (our "local" team) for the National Football Conference championship and a Super Bowl berth. Green Bay and Seattle both play in open stadiums, so fortunately the nasty weather in Seattle today hasn't been any hindrance to the Packers. Unfortunately, we're having a ridiculous amount of trouble with reception—Matt fixes the antenna, picture and sound are perfect, five minutes later we can't hear or see anything. We haven't missed any big plays yet, so it's not a huge deal, and it obviously wouldn't be the end of the world if we have to just give up and keep checking the score online, but it's sure fun to watch the game. Especially while my team is winning. :-)

We will have fun with a Super Bowl party regardless of who is in the game, although I certainly hope it's the Packers. But since they did make it at least to the NFC championship, game, we're having a mini party while we watch:

Any other Packer fans? Enjoy the game today!

"Free Play" in today's society

I've been working on this for a week now, off and on, and I just need to hit "publish" because I've been staring at it too long and can't tell if anything makes sense anymore...

This article from Michael J. Lewis at First Things about the long-term negative effects of a lack of free, unstructured play has been circulating recently among moms I know. In general, I found myself agreeing with the author: there are important lessons that kids don't learn, or have to learn as adults, when they don't get enough free play, and over the last couple of generations our culture seems to largely have stopped regarding free play as a necessary part of childhood.

I'm so grateful that my parents had a big yard and felt strongly about sending us all outside every day to play in the yard and in the woods—we made friends with the neighbor kids, played all kinds of disorganized sports, built and razed civilizations in the snow and the mud, the woods and the sandbox and our imaginations. I'm pretty sure I was elected Grand High Zamboni Driver at one point, of a race of woodspeople that was unfortunately abducted to Zorgon by a one-eyed one-armed flying purple people eater before they could build an ice rink. It was tragic. 

When parents' solution to a child saying "I'm bored" is to hand the kid a list of chores, and electronic entertainment isn't an option, kids learn to entertain themselves. The books they read also influence how they learn to entertain themselves. I'm not talking about classic literature, necessarily; we certainly read a lot of that, but I think that the way our games evolved was more heavily influenced by imaginative adventurers like the characters of Brian Jacques' Redwall, Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons, and of course Lewis' Narnia books and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Living in Alaska, with easy access to no-other-people-for-hundreds-of-miles wilderness, epic adventures were not only appealing but possible.

We learned so many skills through coming up with our own entertainment, never realizing it until years later: leadership, cooperation and collaboration, respect, inventiveness, planning ahead, the ability to look at a chore or a pile of junk and turn it into something everyone wanted a part of.

The sort of free, unstructured play, by and large without adult involvement, that Lewis lauds and I grew up with seems like an experience many kids are not getting these days. A "play date" is today's substitution for the good ol' days' free play, but the fact that the parents and not the kids are the instigators and organizers (and that "organization" is really even involved) makes it a poor substitution indeed, Lewis argues. I'm not sure I'm convinced that his description of typical play dates isn't a caricature—there most likely are parents who run play dates by dictating what games are played and providing constant policing, but surely it's not the norm? I don't know. If I meet a friend at a park to let our kids play, we mostly just stand and talk, not getting involved in little 2-year-old bickering unless someone is legitimately in danger.

Lewis' piece ended unsatisfactorily, though, expounding on the problem of a lack of unsupervised play and young people's resultant inability to handle risk, but not attempting to offer a resolution other than the easily inferred "It was better the way it was back then, so modern parents should start giving their kids the freedom ours gave us." (To be fair, those are my words not his; he could have intended that a different conclusion be drawn and I missed it.) I think, though, that this solution misses a major reason that parents don't let their children roam the neighborhood anymore the way my parents' generation was able to as kids: it isn't safe. Parents in the 1950s and 60s didn't have the same level of (legitimate) concern that many parents today do about some evil person stealing their children. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the FBI's National Crime Information Center registered reports of 462,567 missing children in 2013. Even in neighborhoods where parents have confidence in their kids' safety, giving their children the level of freedom the author talks about is likely to get the police and Child Protective Serivices called and their children potentially taken away—as Lewis pointed out, a South Carolina mother was arrested this summer for allowing her daughter to play unsupervised.

Perhaps the problem is partly one of shifting population densities. Mayberry probably doesn't exist anywhere anymore, but small rural towns have wildly different interpersonal dynamics than big cities, and maybe parents still feel free to give their kids more autonomy in such towns. In rural areas like where we live in Alaska, at least in families who live a part- to full-subsistence lifestyle, the portrait Lewis paints of modern parenting is incomprehensible. Mom and Dad don't have time to helicopter parent when they are splitting wood for the fire, hunting and fishing and gathering wild berries and putting up garden vegetables for the winter. Think Little House on the Prairie, but with electricity and indoor plumbing. The kids help out, and they find their own entertainment if they don't want to get more chores because they are underfoot!

So what solution am I offering, if I complain about Lewis' lack of one? Other than moving to a rural area, which clearly isn't any more practical for most people than just snapping our fingers and returning to Mayberrian society. I don't know. The urban social environment today doesn't seem able to foster the kind of unsupervised play that teaches kids these life lessons. It's easy for me to look at our particular circumstances, our environment, and say "this is why we're never leaving Alaska!" But that's not actually helpful to parents in more urban places. 

Awareness of the need for unsupervised play, in whatever level your kids can achieve where you are, is probably the first step: resisting the urge to step in, make decisions and resolve conflicts for them unless adult involvement is truly necessary, and reevaluating what "truly necessary" means with different children and at different ages. How else will our kids learn to solve their own problems, to develop their abilities to lead and invent and negotiate? It can be hard! As parents, we want our kids to be happy. But what we really want is what's best for them, and that means giving them ample opportunity to make their own choices and mistakes, and to grow from them.

Answer Me This with WIWS

Late to both parties, but I'm doing it anyway: linking up with Kendra at Catholic All Year as well as What I Wore Sunday at Fine Linen and Purple, with a photo for Jen Fulwiler's selfie contest!

So many links. Why do I always do this on my phone, which hates linking? I don't know. Because I can only blog while the child is asleep and usually sprawled on top of me?

Anyway!

1. What's for supper?

Ree Drummond's Fried Round Steak, which I've never attempted, but I happened to notice a pack of cube steak at the grocery store hours after seeing this recipe, and heavens, cube steak is cheap. So it came home with me. We shall see how it turns out. I'm also planning on my mother's potato salad and an as-yet-undetermined green vegetable, likely beans or broccoli.

2. What's the last thing you borrowed from someone?

Me personally? My sister's yellow cardigan to wear on Easter:

Matt and I collectively? A spade from my dad to help Matt's friend with some work outside his cabin.

3. What is your favorite prayer?

In this Easter season, I have been really appreciating the continual reminder of Easter joy in the Regina Coeli, and I've actually managed to say it pretty much every day so far!

Overall, though, I'd say that my favorite prayer is one I learned from one of our former pastors, whose previous assignment had been among aboriginal Australians. This is a private act of thanksgiving after receiving communion, translated from their language:

Oh my Jesus, I believe in You.

You are my Lord and my God.

I trust You, and I love You.

Thank You for all the good things You have given to me.

Please look after me and all my family.

Keep us safe, and free from harm

And make us all truly good, deep in our hearts.

Oh my Jesus, I believe in You.

You are my Lord and my God.

4. What is the oldest thing in your house?

We really don't have much that's old; I have a ring my great-grandmother's uncle had made for her in the early 1900s, but I can't think of anything else that's been handed down from past generations. 

But there is one thing that's quite old: Within the first couple of months that we were married, a priest friend gave us a first class relic of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos! He was a Bavarian Redemptorist who served German immigrants in America from his ordination in 1844 until his death in 1867. He died in New Orleans of yellow fever, contracted while tending to poor victims of the disease. We had never heard of him before, but now we include him when we are praying to our patron saints, and make sure to celebrate his feast day (October 5).

5. What's the best concert you ever attended?

It's been so long... There were a few amazing Baroque concerts I attended in Pittsburgh while I was in college, but I can't remember going to hear live music of any kind since then. That's sad! We were too poor to even consider concerts right after we graduated, and now our lives are so busy and we don't go out at night because of Little Bear and concert tickets tend to be ridiculously expensive... And it's pretty rare that anyone we'd want to hear comes all the way to Alaska, anyway. Someday, though.

6. Do you have a nickname?

Most of my family and friends from when I was younger still call me Rose, which I pretty much dropped in favor of my full name by the beginning of college. There are probably quite a few nicknames my siblings could dredge up from their memories, so let's not ask them! 

One that has stuck around, though only in a very specific context, is my radio call name: Whenever we were out hiking, pretty much every Sunday afternoon in the summers, the four oldest of us plus my dad carried short-range handheld radios. The idea of course was that they were safety equipment in case someone got lost, but we had so much fun talking code, warning each other of "trail hazards" up ahead, etc. And "just in case we're overheard," we all had radio call names. I, being the oldest, the first, the one who named the others... was Adam.

— — — — —

With the end of the university's academic year, the university parish where we've been attending Mass switched to their summer schedule this weekend, celebrating Mass at 11:00 am instead of 10:30 am. The 10:30 was already a little late to work with Little Bear's nap, and 11:00 was so much worse... I know that he's getting old enough that we should be requiring better behavior of him, but when you know that the kid is tired and ready for a nap and you bring him somewhere he has to be still and silent for an hour anyway, is it really only the kid's fault when he gets fussy? I don't know what's going to happen next week.

The priest saying Mass yesterday had a wonderful homily, though, about how we are all called to be both shepherds--leading those entrusted to us--and sheep--listening to God and following Him and those He puts in authority over us. He really stressed that we cannot be good shepherds until we are good sheep and are honestly open to listening to and obeying God.

Matt's allergies were pretty bad yesterday, so our Mother's Day plans of going up north and spending the afternoon on a river didn't work out, but we did get out for a little bit and walked along the riverbank at the boat launch a few miles down from where we live. Little Bear had a blast throwing rocks into the river, and he and Matt found some pretty ones for me:

And here's what I wore Sunday, along with Jen Fulwiler's book Something Other Than God! You can't really tell here, but I'm being a ridiculous woman wearing wedge sandals and trying to keep my balance on those rocks and not fall into the river. Which would certainly have made for a more exciting entry for the Most Epic Selfie contest, but would probably also have ruined my book!

Cable-knit sweater: Tiara, thrifted

Skirt: White Stag, thrifted

Sandals: Dansko, found on the free pile at the dump!!

Tichel: CoverYourHair.com

Five Hours Later

Yesterday morning, once Matt and Little Bear sat down to breakfast, I picked up Jen Fulwiler's book, Something Other Than God. I didn't set it down again for five straight hours: they ate, they played, I sat on the step out front and kept reading as I watched Little Bear run around with his ball, then balanced the book on my knee while Little Bear nursed and fell asleep curled up on my lap. And after five hours immersed in Jen's beautiful conversion story, just as Little Bear began to stir, I turned the last page of the epilogue and set it down, bursting with thoughts and emotional responses and enthusiasm. Since I didn't want to wake Little Bear I couldn't share them with Matt, so I quickly pulled up a new post and began letting my thoughts bubble over onto the page.

As Little Bear woke up, he flailed and hit the screen and closed Blogger. Before I'd saved.

So you are (fortunately? unfortunately?) spared my initial exclamation-filled response to Something Other Than God, and now that I've had a day to mull over the book, hopefully I'll be able to do it justice because it is no exaggeration to say that Something Other Than God is the best book I've read this year, or even one of the best books I've read in several years. 

If you've ever read her blog, Conversion Diary, you know that I picked up Something Other Than God expecting Jen's candid, intelligent, witty, conversational writing, and of course you won't be surprised to learn that I wasn't disappointed. I expected to learn, and I did; to be entertained by her stories, and I was. But I didn't expect to be so deeply impacted by moments throughout her journey, to find the words suddenly blurring behind a sheen of tears as I heard my own thoughts in her frustration and struggles to understand suffering, death, and loss. 

The way Jen came to her answers to the hard questions we all ask-- how can a good God allow this? how can this terribly difficult thing be good/right/the only option? --spoke to me in a way I particularly needed just now, on Mother's Day weekend just weeks after losing our daughter. The Fulwilers' investigation of Catholicism, their gradual transformation through belief, was inspiring; the sound reasoning they employed and the breadth of history they read through on their journey-- St Justin Marytr, St Augustine, C.S. Lewis and so many more --brought both centuries of theological perspective and the very personal reminder that it is not until we choose to orient our hearts to God that we encounter Him.

Something Other Than God is an open, honest, from-the-heart story of an intelligent young woman seeking happiness, opening herself to answering fundamental, difficult questions, and ultimately discovering and choosing Truth. I fully expect to find myself reading it again and again, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining, inspiring read, particularly those who may have questions about the Catholic Church.

SQTF 87: Toddler Happiness, Spring, and #SOTG

I

We aren't quite to the stage of putting words into sentences yet, but Little Bear is finally starting to move that direction: "Dada, bye-bye," as Matt gets out of the car in the morning; "Dada, work," as we drive around campus; "Dada, chair," as he points out Matt's empty chair while we are eating lunch. It's so fun that he's talking more! I don't think I could begin to list all of the words he's using now, although most people would probably disagree that they count as words; I know most people other than Matt and I can't really understand him, and even we have trouble sometimes. His imaginative play is developing, too: yesterday he was sitting on the counter playing with a measuring cup as he watched me make meatloaf. First it was a hat, then a shoe, and then he held it up to his ear. "He-o? He-o? Bye!"

II 

After my whole frustrated "I never accomplish anything!" morning yesterday, we had such a great afternoon and evening... I felt so badly for having complained! Little Bear was happy and helpful with the meatloaf, peas and potatoes for supper, ran around picking up books with me, helped put away dishes and laundry... We spent a fun half hour outside playing with his ball, and he must have worked up quite an appetite, because the kid who usually spits out meat ate his piece of meatloaf, half of my piece of meatloaf, and half of the second little piece I brought over for us! He got all excited when I offered him a bath, and he played happily in the water until bedtime.

I know not every night will go half as smoothly as yesterday did, but it was still nice to realize that Little Bear is getting to be an age where he and I can have a fun time together on nights when Matt goes out after work to do something with friends. He's able, most of the time, to stop fussing and listen to me explain that "we do not have any grapes but I will buy some at the store tomorrow," or to put down his favorite story even though I haven't read it ten times yet because "Mama really needs to go check the meatloaf, but you can come too, okay?"

III

Jen's book, Something Other Than God, finally arrived! Sometimes Amazon ships quickly to Alaska, but sometimes...not so much. I'm so excited to read it! This weekend. I have to make it through my crazy list of weekend chores and errands today, so that I can dive into it tonight and tomorrow without feeling guilty for neglecting things... Maybe I can even prep something for tomorrow's lunch for Matt and Little Bear so I can feed them without having to set it down! It's going to be that good, I'm sure of it.

I don't have a photo yet, but if Matt's allergies aren't killing him on Sunday I am hoping that we can go driving up toward the mountains. I'm probably one of the only people with a chance of entering a photo in Jen's "most epic selfie" contest of myself holding Something Other Than God while sitting on an ice floe...

IV

I talked last year about how Alaskans refer to Spring as Breakup, because the ice on all the rivers and lakes is breaking up. There's another Spring-word that's unique to the North Country, though: Greenup. When I was in Ohio for college, I marveled at how the trees slowly took their time unfurling their leaves, how you'd see buds on one tree one day, maybe three trees a few days later. The vibrant Spring green spread gradually. In Alaska, in this part of Alaska, each Spring there is one particular day--referred to as Greenup--on which every single birch, aspen, and poplar (our three main deciduous trees) for miles and miles bursts into brilliant green leaf-ed-ness. All at once. It's insta-purgatory for allergy-sufferers. 

This year Greenup officially occurred last Saturday, coming a week earlier than average thanks to our bout of late-April and early-May 70s. The burst of pollen accompanying Greenup was the second-worst in the last 14 years, according to the certified pollen-counter at the city clinic. Poor Matt has had a rough week!

V

I'm doing a good job of remembering so far this year, but not having grown up with anyone who suffered from seasonal allergies, it's always so hard for me to remember that I can't throw open all of the windows and air out the house now that it's finally warm outside! I put the screens back in the windows yesterday and turned off the heat for the summer, and will just have to hope that the stronger-than-usual pollen count right here at the beginning will mean a shorter allergy season overall. Also that my recovery speeds up, so that if I can't let the outside in, I can at least start going for walks and enjoying the Spring weather during the days.

VI

So surely my plan to get all of my out-of-the-house craziness finished today so that I can stay home and read tomorrow isn't entirely selfish, since staying home means not opening the door and letting pollen in, right? I may be a little nuts to think I can make it through the whole list this afternoon... There's noon Mass if Little Bear wakes up in time, the used book store to trade in some things for store credit, the crisis pregnancy center to donate the books and goodies my midwife's office gave me but now we won't be using, the thrift store to donate some items and maybe if I'm really a crazy person try to find a white or cream shirt, the grocery store for grapes and shelf pegs, the Catholic Student Association on campus to return some dishes, the Lutheran church across from the library to check out their annual garage sale (again with the "if I'm a crazy person" category), the dump, and my mom's house. Nine places. In a span of... two hours? maybe two and a half? with the toddler. Hmm. 

VII

I just want to say Thank-you, again, to all of the people who have been praying for us since we lost baby Alex. Your thoughts, prayers, and kind words have been so appreciated! We are so blessed to have the support of so many wonderful people.

For more Quick Takes, and more about Something Other Than God, be sure to stop by Conversion Diary!

[Update: Little Bear and I did survive the list of craziness, so it's time to read!]

A Medley of Media: Gearing Up for Lent

Ash Wednesday is the day after tomorrow, and if you're like us, you probably have a pretty good general idea of what you're doing for Lent this year, but maybe it's not quite all hammered out yet. We are giving up sweets, as usual--we both grew up doing so, and eating desserts just doesn't seem fitting with the penitential nature of the season. Alas, March is always Lent and McDonalds only carries Shamrock Shakes during March... I have a ridiculous sweet tooth in general, so giving up desserts is definitely a sacrifice. Especially sweet, minty milkshakes...

But other than avoiding sweets? There are a bunch of ideas floating around in my head, some grand, some realistic, but I haven't quite made up my mind yet. If you're in the same boat, here are some things that might help:

On the web...

Catholic All Year's Outside the Box ideas for Lent, with beginner, intermediate, and advanced options. Kendra has a lot of great ideas for things to give up or add in that, undertaken in the right spirit, can help you and your family grow closer to God. Be sure to read the comments section, too: there were many good suggestions there as well!

On a smartphone or tablet... 

There are a growing number of Catholic apps specifically geared toward Lenten prayer and meditation. I mentioned the Lenten Magnificat Companion a few days ago, which I really appreciated last year; another I'm considering for this year is Catholic Meditations for Lent, by Valent Ritchie, which has daily meditations from the preaching of St Thomas Aquinas. Some teens and young adults I know have also appreciated Bob Rice's 40 Day Spiritual Workout app as a Lenten practice. And there are a number of free and inexpensive apps offering visual and/or audio aids for meditating on the Stations of the Cross!

In your CD player...

Lent at Ephesus. Following their very popular and successful Advent at Ephesus album, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, have released Lent at Ephesus. The 23-track a cappella album is full of beautifully-sung hymns and chants, and helps to create a more peaceful, prayerful environment in the home. CDs are available on Amazon or directly from the sisters; tracks are also available in iTunes.

Out of good old-fashioned prayer books...

The prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian is unfamiliar to many Roman Rite Catholics, but is commonly recited several times a day throughout Lent by Eastern Rite Catholics and Orthodox, and is a wonderful, and brief, way to refocus. This is one I'll have written out and posted a couple different places around the apartment to remind me to stop and pray throughout the day, and to help me be mindful of the point of Lent.

The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life, keep from me the spirit of sloth, faintheartedness, lust of power and idle chatter.

Instead, grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love.

O Lord and King, grant me the grace to be aware of my sins and not to judge my brother; for You are blessed now and ever and forever. Amen.

What are you doing for Lent this year? I'd love to hear about any resources that have helped you prepare for Lent!