100 Days of Change Thursday, Apr 30 2009
Dreaded Politics and Election 2008 2:48 pm
This is leadership! Monday, Apr 27 2009
This N That Catholic universities 5:14 pm
Mary Ann Glendon, former Ambassador to the Holy See has refused to accept Notre Dame’s prestigious Laetare award. Read all about it here. This is no insignificant event. Read Raymond D’Souza’s commentary here.
There are some public figures who put principle above anything else. We can be proud of Mary Ann Glendon who has shown incredible class in regards to Notre Dame. Our Lady must be weeping over this university which bears her name.
We need to lobby Rome to yank the “Catholic” from such universities as Notre Dame, Xavier, Georgetown and all the others that thumb their nose at Church teaching. This is getting out of hand.
No Larry, you can’t plant the garden yet! Monday, Apr 27 2009
God's Beauty and Spring 3:13 pm
The plants and seeds have arrived and the calendar says it is spring. Better wait awhile longer!
View of the corral
View from the back
View of the garden
Snow makes everything beautiful
Except the construction
Catching up–More Easter pictures Wednesday, Apr 22 2009
Feast days 8:07 am
After Easter I switched gears to prepare for the conference, but I wanted to post a few more pictures. 
Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday
Easter Bunnies for the littles
Easter bonnet chocolate mousse cake
Mesmerized by the bottle
A different athletic event Tuesday, Apr 21 2009
Uncategorized 4:17 pm
Karen over at the Dog and Duck posted this. It is very cool.
Georgia, Day 4 Monday, Apr 20 2009
Around and about and This N That 7:40 pm
We had been told that where we were staying was not far from the Tridentine parish in Georgia. In the morning we got up and with a little, not too detailed map in hand, we took off. A trip that should have taken us about 25 minutes took us an hour, because the major road shown on the map didn’t exist. (Thank you Google maps). So we barely arrived in time for Mass. The church is a converted protestant church, and they have made it very traditional. 
Our return trip was no better, because a different map led us all over creation. Anyway, we made it back, changed and ate the leftovers from our previous night’s dinner, packed up and went to the airport.
Along the way we saw this mysterious enormous Church of the Apostles. There is nothing on line to explain it–what denomination, etc, but the edifice is impressive and beautiful.
We saw some wysteria which reminded me so much of my parents–Georgia is lovely at this time of year with the trees in bloom, and everything was super green.
We returned home to this–which is loveliness of a different sort:
Georgia, Day 3 Monday, Apr 20 2009
Around and about and Classical Education and Homeschooling 101 and This N That Marriott Marquis 6:11 am
Georgia, Day 3
Our day began early with another Mass of Vatican II celebrated by Fr. Fessio. There were very few people in attendance—maybe 20. That is such a shame because it contains the best elements of the Pre-Vatican II Mass and the Novus Ordo. The best part of the Novus Ordo has not been experienced by most people, unfortunately.
We spent the morning at our table in the vendor hall talking to people. One feature of this conference was that it was made up of a very young crowd. Almost all of the parents either had a baby/toddler in tow or one “in the oven, ” with a few older siblings as well. I enjoyed visiting with the people and hearing their experiences. Many are homeschooling and having children in the face not only of societal pressure not to, but also in the face of familial pressure which is almost harder to deal with than the societal pressure. They are brave souls indeed, trying to live in fidelity to the Church and raise good families.
We realized at 1:00 that we needed to hit the road in order to be able to mail the unsold books. Well we missed the post office deadline and had to go to a UPS store instead. That cost way too much because of their surcharge, and besides, we are not impressed with UPS right now. But they had us, so we left the boxes and headed for our destination of Dobbins Air Force Base where we had a room reserved.
We drove into Atlanta, spent $10 to park our car and then walked down to the Peachtree Center. 
When we lived in Georgia 30+ years ago, we loved to go see the Marriot hotel which has an atrium from the top to the bottom. You can see by the pictures how dizzying the view is. We took one of the glass elevators to the top but quickly went back down because we felt unsteady on our feet at that altitude looking down to the lobby below.
We found a nice Italian restaurant “Scallini’s” and had a relaxing dinner before heading back to the base for our last night in the Atlanta area.
Georgia, Day 2 Saturday, Apr 18 2009
Around and about and Classical Education and Homeschooling 101 5:57 pm
We left Warner Robins early and drove 2 1/2 hours to Acworth, north of Atlanta. My goal was to arrive before the first speaker took the podium so that I could ensure that there would be no technical glitches between my computer and the college media system. Bill was there to help me and we were not able to stabilize the picture on the wall where it was being projected. So they called in the campus IT guy who diddled for a good 45 minutes trying to figure out the problem. Turns out it was a broken jack on the stage which had to be replaced. 
Moral of story–always arrive early enough to check out the AV system. To do anything else is to court disaster.
Once that was settled we went to a speaker’s luncheon. Unfortunately the restaurant was closing for good that night–the economic downturn has hit everywhere. So we had a harried lunch and then went to the conference.
The conference was beautifully organized but not well attended unfortunately. Fr. Joseph Fessio was the keynote speaker but his plane was delayed and once he finally landed, he got stuck in traffic. So when he finally arrived, he combined his talk with the Mass. He did a beautiful explanation of the Mass of Vatican II and then celebrated it. If this Mass had not been hijacked, I doubt there would have been so many problems after the Council. As he explained it, most of the options allowed after the Council were ignored, and people took the most simplified, stripped-down path for the Mass, leaving it lacking in beauty and reverence. 
It was quite late after the Mass but the organizers had planned a delightful dinner for us at an Italian restaurant called Fusco’s. We were in a building that had been a jail a long time ago–the building is over 100 years old. It was good to relax, talk and laugh after a long day. 
The only creature to ever escape from the jail was a donkey. The jail is now being used for restaurant storage.
A tired but uplifted group after a long day.
Georgia, Day 1 Thursday, Apr 16 2009
Around and about Georgia homeschool conference, Return to Robins 6:27 pm
We left Denver at 7:40 after leaving our car at an offsight parking area. Absolutely no complaints about the flight. However, we seem to be suffering from amnesia. After picking up our rental car, we drove to Warner Robins to see our old place and spend the night. It was as if we had never been here before! Weird. No kidding, the only thing we remember after 30+ years is our street
Our house, which looks a bit messy after all these years…
and the infamous slide where Ian burned his little 2-year-old legs on a hot day
Can you imagine–they havent replaced the tall old steel slide which was loads of fun for a youngster with a short plastic one that is no fun at all? Don’t they care about kids ;>)
I did have one panic attack today. We checked our email and then went for a walk. When we came back, my computer wouldn’t boot up. That was a disaster for me as I am doing a power-point presentation tomorrow, which would be impossible without a computer. Anyway, Mike to the rescue. I called him and he told me to remove the battery, re-insert it and then try again. Voila! I am posting. I owe you one, Mike!
Off to Georgia Wednesday, Apr 15 2009
Around and about and Classical Education and Homeschooling 101 and Prayers 3:35 am
We are venturing out a bit further than usual for the Georgia Catholic Homeschool Conference where I’ll be speaking about Beauty. We used to live in Georgia so we are looking forward to going back after 30+ years. I am not a fan of flying but have a special intention I am offering up the flight for. Please say a prayer that all goes well. Thanks, in advance.
