On homeschooling and socialization

Thanks to our good friend D.O. for sending this article. (Update: The following is a long quote from an article written by Shaunti Feldhahn, a Harvard grad and columnist.)

Like many critics, I used to feel vaguely sorry for home-schooled kids. What a shame, I thought, that they might be deprived of the well-rounded education and social skills to become integrated, productive members of society. I never thought to question why cafeteria food fights or the predatory pack habits of teenage girls would be better for molding productive members of society.

This uninformed, critical opinion lasted precisely until I met my first home-schooled children several years ago. Within one month I met five home-schooling families, and their 13 children were among the most polite, well-adjusted, socially adept and academically advanced kids I'd ever seen. Being home-educated seemed to have given them a confidence and maturity — and yes, social skill — far beyond their years. They had many friends, but didn't seem dependent on their peers for approval — a far cry from what I remember as a kid.

Go read the whole thing.

OK, this is the last post about that shopping trip.

These posts, about girls' clothing that looks like hookers' hand-me-downs, are collecting several comments.

First off, I'm happy report that my teenage daughters do have some common sense and good taste. I let my girls shop in the juniors department on their own for awhile (because it was driving me crazy, mainly) and they reported that there wasn't one single decent pair of jeans to be found.

So, we headed to the misses department, where, thankfully, they found some "normal" jeans that fit well and looked good.

Some commenters below suggested sewing (great idea, but not for me), Lands End (yes, I do shop there, but to outfit all the kids that way would require a second mortgage), Boston Store (maybe fine for women but same problem in the juniors department).

Basically, these last few shopping trips were an eye-opener for my girls. They've realized that the juniors department is hopeless, that they can find nice things in the misses department, and that dressing modestly is more important than having something that's the latest style.

Will there be a trend toward more modest clothing? I'm not sure I believe it. Yes, this particular look is a fad that will pass, I hope, but I've been hearing for a couple years now that a more covered-up look was coming back.

Just the fact that they call it a "look" indicates that it's nothing permanent, even if the clothes do make it into the stores.

About that shopping trip...

Thought I'd just add a little bit to that last post because of the comments. (Thanks for stopping by, Dad29 and tee bee!)

First, we were shopping at Kohl's. Yep, Kohl's, that staid department store.

Second, the padded bras in the girls department? That was Target.

Just so you know.

On shopping for and with daughters: a rant.

Took my three girls shopping this weekend. What an infuriating experience.

Not because of my girls. They were all pretty well-behaved. At ages 15, 13, and 6, you might expect some difficulty from one or the other, but we actually did OK, with only a few minor crabby moments (which I chalked up to exhaustion and low blood sugar) for the entire 4-hour shopping marathon.

No, it wasn't them; it was the clothing that enraged me.

Really, it's almost an occasion of sin. I get so furious at the diabolical designers of clothing that makes innocent young girls look like hookers.

Really sleazy ones, at that.

What is the matter with those people?

The racks are filled with too-tight, too-low, dirty, ripped, trashy looking blue jeans. Sorry, make that dirty grey/green/dirt colored blue jeans.

Did I mention they look dirty? And I mean that in more ways than one.

And the tops. Most of them are absolutely appalling. They are low cut, spaghetti-strapped, too tight and midriff-baring. Then there are the t-shirts with rude or blatantly sexual sayings emblazoned across the bust. There are camisole tops with huge, built-in padded bras.

Oh, and don't even get me started on padded training bras. No, I am not kidding. There really is such a thing. What person in their right mind would want to buy a padded bra for a 12-year-old girl?

I would complain to the buyers -- and probably will -- but what are they going to say? People buy this stuff.

So now my question is, what is wrong with those people?

"A spine detected"???

Just what I asked for!

Drudge had big red letters:

IT'S A GO: IRAQ WAR SHOWDOWN IN CONGRESS: VOTE ON TROOP PULLOUT

Instpundit has this:

THIS IS INTERESTING: "House Republicans, sensing an opportunity for political advantage, maneuvered for a quick vote and swift rejection Friday of a Democratic lawmaker's call for an immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq."

UPDATE: "A spine is detected."

Let's hope the vote is overwhelmingly in favor of supporting the president.

We need to finish the job in Iraq, and make sure the terrorists all know that we will not cut and run. We are not the America of the Clinton years; this time, we will do the right thing.

A sick feeling...

... in the pit of my stomach, from this.

Hugh Hewitt has a good round up of reaction to this cowardly posturing by the Republican Senators. (Hat tip Instapunk.)

From Mr. Hewitt:

The proposed Senate resolution is an unmistakable vote-of-no-confidence in the Administration, and the best gift the United States Senate could give Zarqawi and his terrorist ranks. It is almost incomprehensible that Senate Republicans could see this in any other fashion.

Suddenly we are back where we were when the Congress turned on the Vietnam War. Hopefully some Republicans will emerge to lead the fight against this ill-advised and deeply defeatist onset of the shakes.

I was disgusted with them before, but this is beyond the pale.

Movies at the Family Theater lately

Friday night is Family Movie night in our household.

On the small screen here recently:

The Song of Bernadette. Beautiful film; very moving in its portrayal of faith, miracles, and the pure soul of a young French girl. A little long for the kids (2-1/2 hours), but it did manage to keep their attention till the end. From an Amazon reviewer:

There are very few "religious" films that actually achieve a sense of spirituality that makes them work for believers and non-believers alike. "The Song of Bernadette" is one of those rare films, and owes a lot of its power to the Oscar winning performance of Jennifer Jones as Bernadette Soubirous, the young French peasant girl who in 1858 saw a vision of the Virgin Mary in a grotto near the town of Lourdes. While gathering firewood with her sister and a friend, Bernadette was told by the "beautiful lady" to return to the grotto every day for fifteen days. The common folk of Lourdes come to belief in young Bernadette's visions, while the authorities try to put a stop to the nonsense, and the church keeps its distance for the moment.

My birthday is on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, so I have a particular fondness for St. Bernadette, but even if I didn't, I'd love this film.

The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Gosh, was Ron Howard a cute kid. As the mother of an eight-year-old boy, some of the scenes of the heartbroken, motherless Eddie really got to me. On the down side, parts of the movie seemed dated, or a little, well, odd. The kids liked it, though, and it has a happy ending. So, give it a thumbs up.

Home Canning: The bragging continues

If you know me (and most of you don't, you only know my blogging, or maybe you only know me as an acquaintance), you know that I don't take myself all that seriously. These bragging posts are more like "Wow, I can't believe this worked!" rather than "Hey, I'm so cool."

But I have to post about this because it was so much fun! There's a little element of living dangerously, too. After all, I could potentially kill off all my friends and relatives if I didn't can this stuff properly.

But I'm pretty sure I did it right.

(Think, think, think...)

Yep, pretty sure.

So, if you get a couple jars of apple pie filling from me for Christmas, just enjoy.

And keep your phone handy in case you need to call 911.

Okay, so maybe I am Martha Stewart

Except for the fact that I'm not rich, famous, powerful, or even all that domestically talented, that is.

Oh, and I'm not an ex-con, either.

Warning: As the Anchoress would say, this post is all about me, me, ME! So just come back tomorrow if you want something less narcissistic.

Anyway.

So, if you're still reading... you wanna know what I did here in our little household recently?

* picked spinach and tri-color lettuce from my garden for our dinners
* snipped a few pieces off my rosemary plant, which I brought inside for the winter, to add to a pork chop dish
* for the first time, did some home canning and put up 6 pints of homemade apple pie filling
* whipped up a batch of dried-fruit scones with my daughters
* made an apple pie with above-mentioned pie filling (had to test it out, after all)

Well, maybe I'm not like Martha after all. I used a refrigerated Pillsbury pie crust.

But about that home canning: It is sooooo cool. When I heard those little lids make that little "pop" sound to indicate they were sealing, I made the whole family pause the movie we were watching to come see.

You want to see, too? OK, I'm going to unload the camera tonight and post a pic of the jars tomorrow.

About those Republicans...

Obviously I'm not alone in being fed up with them.

Some links:

A couple of my fellow Wisconsin bloggers agreed with me on this post.

Rich links to a great cartoon that sums up the Repub's behavior on Alaskan drilling. Rich also posted a great rant on Thursday.

Michelle Malkin is posting letters to the GOP here (H/T)

Chasing the Wind posts an excerpt from the Bidinotto Blog.

Most of these bloggers seem to have lost it because of the ANWR failure. But I've been losing it with the Republicans for longer than that.

The most egregious failure of the Republicans? Their failure to explain to the country, over and over again, in the face of repeated lies from the left and their water carrier, MSM, why we need to fight, and win, the War on Terror.

Quote from Commentary via Instapunk:

Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.

What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up, or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what.

Glenn Reynolds is on this, too.

Warning: Rant about to begin

Drudge (in an earlier headline today linking this article) says "Bush unleashed".

To which I say, "It's about time!"

What on earth has he been waiting for? I was wondering how long he was going to sit around before fighting back. I'm so sick of the media distorting the reason for going to war, spreading Joe Wilson's lies, and generally bashing the heck out of the President and his agenda, especially in the GWOT.

And while I'm ranting here, let me also say I'm sick and tired of the feebleness of the Republicans. They have the House, Senate, and Presidency, and what on earth have they done? What are they, afraid of the Democrats? Afraid of Teddy Kennedy? Give me a break.

We got a call not long ago from the Republican National Committee, begging for money. I told them not one dime, not one penny, until the Republicans start acting like Republicans. I want budget cuts, pro-life judges, pro-life laws. I want every single Republican to be out there explaining why we are fighting in Iraq, what the stakes are, why the Islamofascist threat is serious, and what our successes have been so far.

I was one of Rove's army of volunteers around the country last fall. But I'm starting to wonder why on earth I wasted my time and shoe leather walking around the neighborhood doing lit drops and talking people into voting for Bush. Why'd I give money for Republicans if they're not going to act much different than Democrats?

Republicans: Grow a backbone. Rent one, if you have to.

But until then, you've seen the last of my support.

Must read Anchoress post

Via the Astute Blogger. You must read this post at the Anchoress; it's riveting. She posts an email from one of her French readers.

A little bit of it:

[O]ne state channel, FR3, has decided not to speak about burned cars. No fire reported=no fire at all. Most people don’t even know that dozens and dozens of little churches all over France have been set on fire during these past years. Our media don’t like the Catholics and as they despise the ordinary French people, they did not want us to put 2 and 2 together.

When we dare to grumble, when we dare to murmur that Islam is a religion of death, that we do not want to become an Islamic republic, the media and the politicians also scorned us saying we were racist and fascist and anti-arab, and islamophobic, and anti-Semitic. But our money was not scorned upon..... We pay, with our taxes, scores of “associations” full of communist-islamics and we just have to shut our mouths and say amen. Well, not “amen”; amen is not politically acceptable. (emphasis mine)

Go, read the whole thing.

What I love about homeschooling

* Art at the kitchen table with all four kids, ages 15, 13, 8, and 6. It actually works.

* Religion and art history in the sunny living room, with kids, books, and art prints strewn over sofas, chairs, and floor.

* Diagramming.

* Latin.

* The quiet that descends on the house after a trip to the library as each child settles into his favorite reading spot with his bag full of books.

About Europe

Drudge says today that the rioting in France seems to be losing strength. That's good. But the French are delusional if they think this will be the end of it.

The reason is this:

The average number of children per woman in the European Union is 1.5, according to EU statistics, but in some countries, including heavily Roman Catholic Italy and Spain, the average is 1.3.

This has been going on for a long time. The Europeans lost their faith, became a contraceptive culture rather than a life-giving one, let the birth rate fall below the replacement level, and thus opened up a huge cultural and demographic vacuum which was quickly filled with Muslim immigrants.

This sets up an opportunity for an enormous cultural clash.

(The quote above was actually taken from this article about an Italian mother of 11 children who was just beatified by the Pope this week.)

Mark Steyn (via Instapundit) has some remarks worth noting:

For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness.

And:

French cynics like the prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, have spent the last two years scoffing at the Bush Doctrine: Why, everyone knows Islam and democracy are incompatible. If so, that's less a problem for Iraq or Afghanistan than for France and Belgium.

Jihad in Europe

Given recent events in France, this article from Human Events online, which I happened to bookmark a year ago, is apropos:

What Europe has long sown it is now reaping. Bat Ye'or, the pioneering historian of dhimmitude, the institutionalized oppression of non-Muslims in Muslim societies, chronicles in her forthcoming book Eurabia how it has come to this. Europe, she explains, began thirty years ago to travel down a path of appeasement, accommodation, and cultural abdication before Islam in pursuit of short-sighted political and economic benefits. She observes that today "Europe has evolved from a Judeo-Christian civilization, with important post-Enlightenment/secular elements, to a 'civilization of dhimmitude,' i.e., Eurabia: a secular-Muslim transitional society with its traditional Judeo-Christian mores rapidly disappearing."

Later today, I hope to post about something from today's news that may not seem related at first glance, but that in my opinion is one of the leading causes of the plight of Europe today.

"May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace, Amen."

November is dedicated to All Souls, so it seems appropriate to post one of the cemetery headstones we saw on our walk last week:

What a beautiful inscription:

Brother Leo
Bernard
A devout Catholic,
a noble benefactor
and zealous employee
of the seminary
Died fortified by
the Holy Sacraments
November 1, 1880,
Aged 70 years.

Devout, generous, hard working. I wouldn't mind that kind of epitaph, but I'm pretty sure I haven't earned it yet.

And I didn't even realize when taking the picture that he died on All Saints' Day, 125 years ago this month.

Since I'm making his final resting place so public, please, if you don't mind, say a little prayer for the repose of his soul. If he doesn't need the prayers, don't worry, they'll go for someone who does.

More photoblogging

More scenes from our seminary woods walk yesterday. Here's a statue of gentle St. Francis with a lamb, in a beautiful stone grotto. The kids love this one.



A tree-lined road.



The old cemetery, tucked away in the woods. Many of the headstones date from the late 1800's.

The March of the Penguins

At my brother's urging, I took the kids to see "March of the Penguins", the acclaimed documentary about emperor penguins in the Antarctic.

We loved it. The penguins are fascinating, funny, adorable (in the newly hatched and "toddler" stages, anyway), and, if you allow for some anthropomorphizing, even courageous, noble, and awe-inspiring.

It's a wonderful story of life and death, the beauty and complexity of nature, and the glory of God's created world -- even in a place so relentlessly harsh that it's hard to imagine it exists on this planet.

Today, through a tangled web of links (randomly starting with this blog from the Pro-Life blogroll in the sidebar, then to this blog via the "headlines" links on the first one, and finally here) I discovered that the film has been hailed as pro-life.

From the article linked above on World Net Daily by Jill Stanek:

Almost every scene and narrative verified the beauty of life and the rightness of protecting it.

From the NYT article as reproduced here::

"March of the Penguins," the conservative film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing."

Well, I'm not so sure about the monogamy part, since the penguins pick a new mate every year, but the rest of it? Yes, I guess you could say those things are all true.

But no matter what you think of the implied cultural messages, don't miss the movie. It's a wonder.

And the biggest wonder of all: That the cinematographers managed to shoot this incredible film while surviving the 70 below temps, howling winds, and blinding snow.

They are even more amazing than the penguins.

Photoblogging

Went for our annual nature walk through the seminary woods today. I love this grape arbor.



The woods are located on the site of the diocesan seminary and a convent, so there are lots of interesting statues on the grounds.

Here's St. Michael.






And here's a sweet guardian angel statue.







More later.

Cloning ban vetoed by Gov. Doyle.

Owen says it very well.

Our culture is quickly sliding to a point where people will no longer look at a child and marvel at the majesty of humanity, but will only see bits and pieces to be used as spare parts in case they contract an illness. Governor Doyle is greasing the slide.

UPDATE: Oh gee, what a silly typo. The title of this post said "Cloning van" for the past 24 hours. My husband read it just now and said, "Cloning van? What's that, a van that drives around snatching people off the street and duplicating them??" Sheesh.

As a Marquette grad....

I have to love this. Via Marquette Warrior.

On the subject of Oprah for President

I cannot believe how many hits I keep getting from searches on "Oprah for President", because of this post (one that I'm not particularly proud of).

As a commenter here pointed out to me, there really is an "Oprah for President" website. I think they're serious.

Let me clarify something here: I would not vote for Oprah for President, I do not want her to run, and I do not think she has a snowball's chance of winning.

I wouldn't vote for her because she's pro-choice, she's a leftie, she supported Gore in 2000, she's said things that strike me as just a wee bit flaky on occasion. Example:

"Sometimes I feel that in our carelessness (regarding pollution, global warming, etc.), we are strangling the earth, and like any living creature, the earth is fighting back."

Um-hmm.

I mean, Oprah's a very successful talk show host, actress, business owner, and general all-purpose celebrity, but that doesn't mean she's qualified to be president.

Just hope that clears things up.

Racism from the left

Found this yesterday on Blogs for Bush:

Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.
Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.

Read the whole story here.

Then we had this in a recent editorial in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America.

So, you're not truly black if you don't toe the liberal Democrat party line. You don't "count" unless you think the way a black person should stereotypically think. (The editorial was written by a black man, by the way.)

This is the end game of identity politics: everyone belonging to a certain ethnic, racial, or gender group by the accidents of birth must slavishly abide by group-think. If not, that person is scorned by other group members, his ideas, contributions, and work all despised.

Isn't this the most insidious kind of bigotry?

How I know Alito is a good pick:

From an article via Drudge:

Moments later, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat and member of the Judiciary Committee, took to the ramparts opposite Mr. Frist.

"It is sad that the president felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America instead of choosing a nominee in the mold of Sandra Day O'Connor, who would unify us," he said. "This controversial nominee, who would make the court less diverse and far more conservative, will get very careful scrutiny from the Senate and from the American people."

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and ranking minority on the Judiciary Committee, called the nomination "needlessly provocative."

Bring it on!