Monthly Archives: June 2008

I guess my favorite movie, ever, is “What’s Up Doc?” starring Ryan O’Neal and Barbara Streisand. So, since tonight was the kids’ last night before going off to camp for two weeks, we decided to make a Family Night of it.  I made lasagna (one of the few foods everyone in our family loves) and we watched “What’s Up Doc?”.

Movies with lots of explosions and bloodshed and foul language really turn me off.  (Well, I did really love Iron Man, which was heavy on the explosion side of things, but who can not like Tony Stark?)  I love movies that make me laugh and forget about reality for a while.  “What’s Up Doc?” is the ultimate romantic madcap comedy.  It’s an old one. . . it came out in 1972.  But it’s a classic.  It is especially enjoyable for me because I love Humphrey Bogart movies, and this movie spoofs a lot of his old flicks, in particular Casablanca and To Have and Have Not.

My favorite part of it is the “Chase Scene”. It is reminiscent of the Keystone Cops, in a way.  Yes, it’s very campy, and really predictable, but that’s part of the fun.  I’ve probably watched this movie more than fifty times, and every time I laugh like crazy.  We all do!

So. . . if you are looking for a really great movie to watch with your family, I highly recommend this one.  It’s even rated ‘G’!!

I am finally finished with the Yearbook!!  Yay!  For those of you who don’t know, I have done the yearbook for our homeschool support group for the past two years.  This is my last year, because it really does take up all of my time and energy, especially toward the end.  I love doing that kind of stuff, but my husband is starting to drop hints that he’d like to see me again at some point, when I’m not buried in a computer screen.

I have plenty of other projects on the back burner that I would love to get to.  I actually got to one of them today!  I have been wanting to design my own banner for this blog for a long time, and I finally did.  Let me know what you think.

Other projects in the works:  a new photo gallery, hosted here on my own site.  I have been using Zenphoto, because it’s really simple, without all the bells and whistles that I don’t need and will never use.  If you want to check it out (understand that there are many more photos coming, and it’s not completely set up the way I want it) the link is:  http://morningtower.net/gallery.  It’s really not much different than my Flickr account, except that once I’ve got all my photos uploaded to it, I won’t have to pay for Flickr anymore.

I am hoping to create my own genealogy website sometime soon, too.  I understand that most of my readers are not interested in my family history, but I would like to have a spot online where that information is available for fellow gravediggers!

The kids (Alex and Faith) leave for camp next Saturday.  Usually I try to do NOTHING while they’re gone, but this year we have a couple of fun things planned.  On the 30th, Mom and I are having a jewelry party.  Then, over the weekend of the 4th, Gaylon and I are going to Gatlinburg for a much needed and long awaited getaway!  Gatlinburg has an Independence Day Parade at Midnight on the 4th (or the night of the 3rd, however you want to look at it) and our hotel is right on the main street, so we’ll get to see it fairly easily.  We also have tickets to Dollywood and are planning on spending a day in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park hiking.  I think it’s gonna be an awesome weekend.  It’s been over 3 years since the two of us have gotten to go off for a few days.

In other news, Alex and Faith both did fantastic last Saturday for their presentations at 4-H County Activity Day.  Alex is doing a presentation on “Oil In Our World” about the uses of petroleum products in day-to-day life.  Faith’s presentation is on Fireflies.  Faith got a blue ribbon, and Alex got a red.  The judges told Alex that if he could just lengthen his presentation by a couple of minutes, he would almost certainly take the gold at State Congress next month.  We go to 4-H District Activity Day next week in Brevard.  That should be a lot of fun!

Kendall is enjoying working at the country club again this summer.  He has a theory now that rich people don’t have kitchens, because they all seem to spend all their time eating at the club.  He thinks (and I agree) that it’s ridiculous to drive over to the country club just to order a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch.  But, it keeps him employed, so he can’t complain too much!!  He is also especially enjoying this summer because his buddy, Joey, is now working there with him in the kitchen at the pool.  Now that would make a good reality tv show!! 

Also, on the 8th, we are getting a new priest.  That’s sort of exciting.  When I was growing up, we always had at least three priests, so it is a strange thing to me to only have one priest.  But it does make it much more exciting when we get a new one.  I’m anxious to see what he will be like.

So, that’s the update here.  I will hopefully have more time to post, now that the yearbook is finished.  Again, please let me know what you think about my new header, and if you check out the photo gallery, let me know about that, too.  It will be updated soon, and frequently.

“Ultimately man becomes sick for sheer lack of authenticity; he no longer lives as a subject: he exists as the plaything of chance and superficiality.” ~Benedict XVI~

I think everybody goes through some form of an identity crisis at some point.  I think perhaps the hardest thing any of us ever has to do is to be real, to be authentic.  I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want to be when I grow up.  Which is sort of weird, because it would seem that I have been ‘grown up’ for a good many years.  But for some reason, the older I get, the more I want my life to have meaning.  I want to do things that matter, that have a lasting impact, for the better.

Yes, I firmly believe that Homeschooling is something that matters greatly.  Raising our children in a Christian home with Christian values is the single most important contribution any parent could ever make.  Nothing could ever matter more.  If I didn’t believe that, I certainly would not have kept it up for the past 15 years!  There have been so many times when it seemed it would be far easier to pack everybody up and send them to the government to be raised and indoctrinated!  But, that has never been a real option for me.  However, as my kids get older (and one is already in college) I have been thinking more and more about what I would like to do with my own life now.  Life after homeschooling, as it were.

For a long time I thought I would simply go to school, get my nursing degree, and become a midwife.  But that never really settled well with me, because deep down, I am at odds with the idea of Certified Nurse Midwifery.  Nurses are Nurses.  Midwives are Midwives.  I do not think they are necessarily mutually exclusive, but I am quite sure that one does not have to be a nurse to be a midwife.  But, that is a soapbox I will not go into here and now.  Suffice it to say, that I have realized that nursing school is not something I want to pursue.

So what, then, do I want to do?  I want to write.  I love to write (probably why I have a blog in the first place??) and it is the one thing that I cannot seem to not do!  Writing is the part of me that is always authentic, and yet in the past twenty years, I’ve done very little of it.

I really loved the quote that I put at the top of this post.  It hit me on a visceral level in a way I can’t fully explain. So I wanted to share it, and try to gather some of my very scattered thoughts on that idea.  I don’t want to merely float through life, waiting for something wonderful to happen.  I want to be authentic, in all areas of my being.

Yes, I will continue to homeschool until we hear otherwise from God.  Frankly, I don’t see that happening, and I am very content and happy about that.  But in an effort to be true to myself, I think I may take a class or two, here and there. . . and maybe pursue that Professional Writing Degree when I finally do decide to grow up!

I know everybody is probably really tired of hearing about my kitten, but, well, he’s just so cute!  I can’t help it.  He has a new favorite place to play, and I wanted to share. . .

Fireplace Kitty

Sitting By The Fire

I am beginning to understand why cats are said to have nine lives. It’s bad enough that Gaylon found Pippin in a box of garbage on a snowy day. But last Thursday, the little guy fell off of our balcony, onto the stairs! That is about an eight foot drop, onto hard wood. He is okay, but he was really tender and bruised for a day or two. It upset him a lot, and he didn’t move much for a few hours. I was so scared he was going to die, and I just sat on the floor with him and cried.

Two days later, I noticed he was no longer attacking my feet, (he likes to ’stalk’ me while I read email) and when I went to look for him, I found that he had nearly hanged himself with a rope drawstring on a bag in our bathroom! He was just sitting there next to the bag, looking very pitiful, with a ‘noose’ around his little neck. Again, he is okay, but by my calculations, he’s down at least a couple of those nine lives!

I have had many cats in my life, and never before have I had one to get into so much trouble! But he is so cute and adorable, so I have to forgive him.

“The beginning of the Gospel stands for the whole; uttering it, one is as it were sending out the breath of the Holy Spirit to engage the four winds, pervading them and turning them to good. The world is thus declared to be the realm of God’s creative word; matter is subordinated to the power of his Spirit. For matter too is his creation and hence the sphere of his gracious power. Ultimately we receive the very bread of the earth from his hands. How beautifully the new eucharistic bread is thus related to our daily bread! The eucharistic bread imparts its blessing to the daily bread, and each loaf of the latter silently points to him who wished to be the bread of us all. So the liturgy opens out into everyday life, into our earthly life and cares; it goes beyond the church precincts because it actually embraces heaven and earth, present and future. How we need this sign! Liturgy is not the private hobby of a particular group; it is about the bond which holds heaven and earth together, it is about the human race and the entire created world. In the Corpus Christi procession, faith’s link with the earth, with the whole of reality, is represented “in bodily form,” by the act of walking, of treading the ground, our ground.” ~Pope Benedict XVI

(Above Quote From: The Feast of Faith, Approaches to a Theology of the Liturgy, pp. 134-135)

This took my breath away! How beautiful to think of the Liturgy in such terms. And the image of uttering the Gospel as sending out the breath of the Holy Spirit to engage the four winds…wow.