7 Quick Takes

A very brief, haphazard, insufficient and exclamatory summary of the past few months in no particular order:

1. Midnight Dancers For the past couple of months, a bunch of my friends and I have been working on a production of Regina Doman's The Midnight Dancers, and at the recent Homeschool Conference, we performed it. It was a fantastic experience! Our cast was such a fun group of people and we were incredibly blessed to have Regina Doman write the script for us AND attend our performance!

2. Homeschool Conference Celebrate the Faith 2009! Beginning with a writing intensive class with Andrew Pudewa, through the performance of Midnight Dancers, great talks, singing in the rain, meeting Regina Doman and her husband, listening to live guitar and violin at our table, having an all-around great time with everyone and finishing up with an absolutely lovely dinner party, this conference was a FANTASTIC weekend!!!

3. WCC I know I already posted on this, but it certainly deserves a place in the summary of recent events. Thanks again to all the students and faculty of Wyoming Catholic College for a wonderful visit!


4. WCYR At the end of March, my mom took a bunch of my friends and I to the Wisconsin Catholic Youth Rally... it was INCREDIBLE! Spending a day with hundreds of other Catholics, mostly teens, (including many of my closest friends) singing (and occasionaly dancing to) Praise and Worship music, listening to great talks having Mass (with Archbishop Dolan) and Adoration, is a truly inspiring, beautiful, fun, friendship-deepening and Glorious experience!

5. Lit. Discussion Group This actually has been something going on throughout the schoolyear, a monthly two hour discussion on various classic books (such as Joan of Arc, Brideshead Revisited and The Song of Bernadette). These discussions are always not only fun and spirited but thought-provoking and extremely helpful in understanding the book. They are lead by Dr. Gotcher , our most recent discussion was on Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset.

6. Latin Mass Last night our Latin Club attended a Latin Mass at St. Stanislaus. It was absolutely lovely. I LOVE chant and polyphony!

7. SPRING! It's May, everything's in blossoms, the grass is unbelievably green, the weather has been, in general, somewhere in the range of 60s-80s... it's PERFECT!!!!!!!!

Now heading into Gradutions, parties, a Baptism and the end of the year dance! It may be a while till my next post :)

New Blog Header

Yesterday, along with two birthdays, a Geography Bee and an expedition to Trader Joes we went to the Zoo. It was absolutely lovely. The cold yet gorgeous walks taken between the warm buildings created just the right mix. We visited: the monkey house, enjoying the whole rambunctious lot of them, but especially the playful Bonobos, the birds, the cows, a few seals and the big cats. My personal favorites, the pair of Lions are responsible for my new blog header. The first thing we saw upon entering the abode of the Big Cats was the Lioness inches away from the seperating glass. After ooing and aahing picture taking for quite some time, we moved on to the next window and found her mate similarly positioned. More of the same naturally ensued. Not long after, we left with cold faces, a ton of pictures and a strong resolve to return very soon.

A Slighty Random Photo

GilbertGirl and I at Caddie Woodlawns house on the way back from ChesterCon!

Busyness

WOW, I'm almost to three months inactivity here, tehe (:

Need I say it's been busy? But oh it's been incredible.

Grandparents 50th, CA cousins in town, ballroom dancing, preparations for the TMAH production of Jane Austen's Emma, catechism, madrigal choir, my first job, Shakespeare lit program, latin club, of course some school, John Bosco Youth Day and a thousand other things have kept me most delightedly busy, and led to a sad neglect of this blog. But stay tuned, we have TONS of pictures from the time elapsed since my last post.

Airport Detour

On the way to ChesterCon. Guess who we got to meet!

Happy 4th

Dancing!

There has recently been something of a ballroom dancing revival in our homeschool group (hurrah!), and so my cousin and I have been dancing lately, but this is us about 10 years ago!

Lit Discussion material

Our monthly lit discussion group today took on The Ballad of the White Horse. Contrary to typical procedings we made our way through the epic in a fairly methodical fashion. Of course tangents are unavoidable which explains our brief discussion of Enchanted. A few points that stick out in my memory are:

Book I: The question which Alfred asked Mary, and the answer he recieved.

Book II: The contrast between the reactions of the chiefs whom Alfred recruits

Book III: The Danish lords who sang, the varying types of hopelessness which their songs expressed and how different Alfred's song was from their's.

Okay, there was a lot more... GilbertGirl? Algernon? Anybody else who came? Help!?!? (:

57

I think I'd be better with lit. (: Geography still needs some work.

Hat-tip: Studeo

There is hope for Hollywood!

I just found out that all the people listed below were married only ONCE!!!!!!

Jim Caviziel
Mel Gibson
Alfred Hitchcock
Colin Firth
Jennifer Ehle
James Cagne
Sir Alec Guiness
(hat tip to Mamselle Duroc for the last two)

And (these two really made my day)...

Jimmy Stewart
Gary Cooper! (I actually did jump up and cheer when I heard those two :)

And those were only of the handful of actors and actresses we looked up.

I've Been Tagged

A. Lynch tagged me for this meme. What fun!

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

"Of which he was the patron. I was there
From college visiting the son- the son
A Walter too with others of our set,"

(From Poems of Tennyson the poem is The Princess; A Medley)

I Tag:

All of the ChesterTeens.

If you say so

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Non-Reader
Fad Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

A Little Literary Math

Frequent rereading of The Ballad of the White Horse, especially of the third book, in an attempt at memorization + reading through the script of Alice in Wonderland (combined with Through the Looking Glass, our drama groups' first performance) numerous times= the rather odd combination, which you see below, running through the head:

How swiftly and with peril
They gather all good things,*
Shoes and ships and sealing wax
Of cabbages and kings*

*The high horns of the forest beasts,
Or the secret stones of kings.
-From book three of The Ballad of the White Horse By G.K. Chesterton

*And why the sea is boiling hot
and whether pigs have wings
-From Through the Looking Glass By Lewis Carrol

Frank's recorder

Thanks to the tenor recorder I'm borrowing, and the recorder lessons that Terri and Bernie have started recently, the dulcet (and sometimes very squeaky) tones of recorders have been echoing through the house. Just now upstairs, I was playing Danny Boy with music spread around me, and Frank, who had just got out of the bath, plopped down beside me and began to "play" on a water recorder, with his eyes firmly fixed on his "music", a.k.a. a Cherokee clothes tag.

How to waste time on a Saturday morning

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.
Kunst, wie Sittlichkeitsgefühl, besteht, wenn sie irgendwo die Linie zeichnet. (German)
L'art, comme la moralité, consiste en traçant la ligne quelque part. (French)
Искусствоо, как morality, состоит в рисовать линию где-то.(Russian)
藝術, 像道德, 包括在劃清界線某處。(Chinese)
Η τέχνη, όπως την ηθική, συνίσταται να σύρει τη γραμμή κάπου. (Greek)
L'arte, come la moralità, è costituita nel disegno della linea in qualche luogo. (Italian)
芸術は、道徳のようなラインをどこかに引出すことで、成っている。(Japanese)
예술은, 도덕 선을 어딘가에 인출하기안에, 이루어져 있는다. (Korean)
A arte, como o morality, consiste em extrair a linha em algum lugar. (Portuguese)
El arte, como moralidad, consiste en el dibujo de la línea en alguna parte. (Spanish)
De kunst, zoals ethiek, bestaat uit ergens het trekken van de lijn. (Dutch)

I'm sure it's evident that I don't like translators, or languages for that matter, and never spend to much time translating Chesterton quotes on them. (: How do you waste time on a Saturday morning (or any morning really)? Just click on the word translators above.

Unsharpened Colored Pencils can accomplish a good deal

I really enjoy "impromptu" or "lazy" colored pencil drawings. I have sat down at a table or at the top of the stairs and found within a very short distance (since I was to lazy to go search for better materials) hardly sharpened pencils and paper already drawn on on one side but the results are often better then some others I have drawn with much more preparation. The other day I did such a "lazy" drawing, and it turned out pretty well considering.

Underground Church

Last Friday after co-op I accompanied two of our homeschool friends to their parish to participate in an event known as the underground church. It was a lot of fun. We got there early to set up. That included taping plastic on windows and doors, stringing rope lights through the stairwells, having a " duct tape war", watching a number of my friends play basketball (and they are really good) and enjoying some pizza before the main event began. The game is meant to emulate to some extent the experiences of the early Christians and it works like this.

Once the rules are explained and everyone has been taken over the school (the scene of the event) all the lights are turned out, and it is really dark. Then the kids wander over the school in search of first the "priest", who will give you a very short bible quote on a piece of cardboard to memorize, then the "church", who will give you a ticket, both of which are represented by adults. Once you have both your memorized bible quote and a ticket you bring them to a certain room, turn them in, recite your quote and get two points for your team. But when you have your bible you can get arrested by the adults who represent cops. If you are arrested then you are taken to the kindergarten room where you must stay for five minutes. At the end of two hours the team with the most points wins.

It was fun, even if it was very hot, and I'm definitely hoping to go next year.

The Bat and the Nightingale

This was our assignment from this past week; to use the same techniques I mentioned earlier to rewrite the Chinese fable: The Bat and the Nightingale. My version titled "An Uncooperative Concert" is shown below.

On the majestic banks of the River Li, which flows through China, there was once a great forest in which resided many creatures. Although any of these creatures might make very interesting subjects, this tale tells of only two of them, of a bat and a nightingale.

The bat was a nocturnal animal, that is he slept the daylight hours away and patrolled the banks by night, in search of mosquitoes. The other was a nightingale. Although she also was nocturnal, it was just about the only thing she had in common with the bat. Singing was her main occupation, and she sang beautifully, so beautifully that the emperor himself came every night with his royal entourage to hear this tiny bird sing. Unfortunately all this attention made the nightingale quite vain and her neighbor the bat, who was a sensible if unattractive creature, began to feel the effects of it.

After her nightly concert for the emperor she always delighted in insulting and nagging the bat. "You lazy bat!" she would say "I sing nightly for the emperor and his court, and all you do is laze around and eat mosquitoes. You are of no real importance, you should learn to make yourself useful." The bat said nothing. Unhindered, the nightingale' s monologue flowed on, the bat however remained silent, because he was unwilling to engage in argument with such an overly loquacious creature. On the quiet dark banks, later that night, he concocted a clever plan, which would show the nightingale the necessity of talents other then that of singing.

As usual, the emperor came with his typical company to hear the nightingale sing. Seemingly the concert would be the same as it always was, but in reality there was a difference. The bat had stayed at home, comfortably waiting to view the upcoming spectacle. In the branches above the audience mosquitoes swarmed. Unabated by the bat, hungry, called together by the presence of a group of humans, or in their minds food, they pounced. Havoc quickly ensued. Singing on, the nightingale did not notice the courtiers backing away and then running for cover. As the first mosquito pounced on him the emperor jumped, because he was a very small and very thin man his jump was quite astoundingly high, squealed and took off as fast as he could. He was a nervous excitable being and his movement consisted in a cross between a series of nervous jumps and frantic running, he reminded one of a very short grasshopper.

The nightingale then realized she no longer had an audience and seeing the bat hanging lazily on the branch of tree guessed the reason. Humbly she said to the bat "I'm sorry, I should have realized your importance in the forest instead of bragging about my talent. Will you forgive me?" Since the nightingale was really sincere and
because the bat was a kind creature, he did forgive her and from then on they acted in cooperation with each other and thus lived happily ever after.

The Fox and the Crow

For our co-op writing class we have lately been rewriting stories, which includes note-taking from the original, so called "dress-ups" (good adjectives, strong verbs, who/which clauses etc. etc.) and "sentance openers" (using various techniques to begin sentances). Over the past few weeks we have been working on "The Fox and the Crow". This is my rather overloaded retelling of this old fable.

The Seizing of the Cheese
As many of us know, nearly all foxes are sly and tricky creatures. A fact as plain and simple as this, however, can be easily forgotten by one who has been blinded by flattery. Assuming you will continue reading, you shall soon see the truth of that statement.

In a small clump of forest once stood a great, old, twisted oak. A contented crow rested there one day. The tree which held the crow, also had presented the opportunity of shade, because it was a very hot day, to a wily fox. Craftily he now gazed at the crow, and more specifically her cheese.

"Beautiful raven," he began, thinking that raven sounded more endearing then crow " You are so lovely, gorgeous... ahem fabulous! I am almost overcome with your beauty, yet you sit there and have not even glanced at me." While the crow stared back at him lovingly, completely taken in by his trickery, the fox carefully crafted his next speech. Pleased with his sucsess so far, which was indeed worthy of some pride, he continued quite cleverly. "If, since your beauty splendid as it is has been so underestimated, then your voice which I have heard so highly praised must be incredible indeed." "Raven dear, won't you sing?" Her voice, it should be noted, had never been praised by anyone, because it was not by any amount of imagination worthy of praise, it was all part of the fox's clever scheme. Since all he wanted was the cheese and cared not about the crow, he was willing to go this far at least to achieve his goal.

The crow, who wasn't the brightest of creatures, was most willing to sing; because of the fox's flattery she was too pleased to remember that foxes are crafty and that she had cheese in her mouth. Singing terribly, she dropped the cheese. While the crow stared forlornly at the rapidly disappearing cheese, the fox dropped his flattery. " Your sense must be nearly as small as your singing ability, and your feathers are really very plain, but you provided me with a delicious if belated lunch, and I thank you. I wouldn't believe everything you're told next time if I were you." With that the fox strolled away with an infuriating swagger, consuming the last bit of the cleverly seized cheese.

Random Anne Facts

Over the past week or so I have spent all my available time (almost) with the Anne of Green Gables series. Previously I had not got past the first book!! Now I am on the fifth and am loving it (how could it be otherwise?)!!!! Perhaps one of these days, maybe when I'm done with the seventh, I'll write a real post on them but now I just wanted to mention a few random things in and about the books that tickled my fancy.

First, on the covers of Anne of the Island and Anne's House of Dreams, she is wearing a pink dress!!!!!! Unfortunatly I couldn't find the exact location, but I know there is a place in the first book where Anne laments that although pink is a lovely color she can never wear it due to her red hair! Hmmm, I wonder if the illustrator actually read the books.

Secondly, Mark Twain apparently was a fan of this series. He described it as "the sweetest creation of child life yet written."

Finally, from the actual book. The background doesn't matter much, Sally is a friend of Anne preparing for her wedding and her meddlesome Aunt is having a conversation with the two of them. My mom, brother and I had a good laugh over this:

"The quality of mercy is not strained." giggled Sally, wriggling into her dinner dress.
"Don't quote the Bible flippantly" rebuked Aunt Mouser "You must excuse her Miss Shirley, she just ain't used to being married yet."

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I think this is greatly thanks to the dramatized Narnia audio books that are heard quite frequently at bed-time here, thanks to my younger sisters.

hat-tip: Studeo