Seven Quickies: Back to Homeschool Edition

I'm actually writing my Seven Quick Takes ahead of time! Mark the calendar! Prepare for the apocalypse! Hide your women and children!

(Oh, thanks to Jen, our lovely hostess!)

So let's get started!

~one~

We sort of started school this week. I want to start Monday (yeah, I know it's Labor Day), but the library is closed ... because it's Labor Day! Sheesh! So since Big Girl has research to complete to be able to write her history papers for the week, we started looking things over this week. And so we've started easing into school, starting yesterday. We've been to the library, and we'll go again tomorrow afternoon, plus we pulled out the Math-U-See books to start brushing up on where we left off.

~two~

Do you know that I resisted using Math-U-See because of the spelling? It's annoying. Great program, but I hate the stupid spelling. Please use proper spelling and grammar!

~three~

Both Big Girl and Little Girl have a lot of research for history. Big Girl has a new topic every week, and Little Girl will be researching our home state of Virginia for the first quarter of school. Should be interesting. To add to the CHC history curriculum, I bought The Book of Time from Sonlight. I think they are the NEATEST books! Basically, it's a blank timeline in a spiral binder. As you get closer to modern times, you get fewer years per page. Big Girl is going to be transferring in her dates from last year's history, and Little Girl will be starting her book this year. Wish I'd seen them earlier! Poor Big Girl ... she's got a few hundred dates plastered all over the walls of our spare bedroom!!

~four~

I want those dates down, too! I want to create a wall of the Church. I found the idea in A Year with God. The wall with the pictures and holy cards will be divided between the Church Militant (those of us on earth), the Church Suffering (those souls in Purgatory), and the Church Triumphant (those souls in Heaven who enjoy the Beatific Vision). At the head of the Church Militant, right at the top, will be a picture of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Pictures of bishops and cardinals will be below that, then pictures of priests we know (hey, Father K!), and then our friends and family. The Church Suffering will include our friends and family who have died, as well as more famous people (like Pope John Paul II and G. K. Chesterton). The Church Triumphant will have holy cards and pictures of those Saints and Blesseds the Church has declared to be in Heaven.

Note for non-Catholics: Catholics do not believe that Saints and Blesseds are in Heaven because the Church says they are; we believe the Church declares they are in Heaven when there is miraculous evidence - or, sometimes, when someone has been declared a martyr. In short, things are not true because the Church says it. The Church says it because it is true.

For more information on Purgatory and Sainthood, please see this list of articles on Mary and the Saints, as well as the information here and here on Purgatory. For more from Catholic Answers on Purgatory, you can see this search result. More can be found on all things Catholic at New Advent's excellent online Catholic Encyclopedia. I like Catholic Answers for the concise explanations that are apologetic in nature and a little more accessible to those who are just looking for some good information. They get into some depth, but you can't beat the Catholic Encyclopedia for really super-duper, in-depth, cross-referenced information on anything and anyone having to do with the Church and Church history.

~five~

Our schedule is totally insane! I've got (at least through October) two days each of dance and soccer, plus Mass during the week. Plus all the normal insanity. I have a feeling I'm going to be using my crock pot a LOT this coming year. And maybe forever more. I wrote out my menu plan for September, though, which takes a load of pressure off me. I found that when I keep a menu, my grocery budget stays within my limits. When I stray from it or forget to write one for too long, I get to 5:45 and start thinking, "I'm hungry. Kids are hungry. Husband is hungry. What will we eat!?" And I did one new thing. I started a separate calendar for the dinner menu and put it on my iMac's calendar. Then I published it through MobileMe so it'll show up on my iPod (and future iPhone), as well as on the other family members' calendars. As long as they subscribe. I hope they do, so they stop asking me what's for dinner. (It's not like it was a secret. I keep the menu on the refrigerator, for cryin' out loud!)

~six~

How about a little movie?

I don't know about you, but I feel better!

~seven~

I have a special intention. Could you please keep it in mind when you pray? Don't worry. God knows.

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Have a blessed weekend, and enjoy Monday's day off. Unless you're not off. Then, sorry. I've been there. Come to think of it, I'm *still* there!