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

Latin Convention results!

Well, here is the complete list of our team's results from our Latin weekend (in case it seemed like we spent all our time jumping around screaming):

1st Place Team Spirit for Small Schools
1st. Place Team Spirit for Friday morning
1st Place Team War machine contest (with help from Coyote's dad.)
1st Place N.G. (The only guy on our team) Costume Contest
1st. Place GilbertGirl Mythology test (Hurray, GilbertGirl!!!!!!! Although I can't say it's too much of a shock knowing her:)
2nd Place Coyote Costume Contest (it included two additional "heads" since Hecate, the required costume for girls, is often pictures as looking three ways and a very cool looking sign post, used as a staff, since Hecate is the godess of the crossroads.)
2nd Place Team Spirit for Friday afternoon
3rd Place GilbertGirl Poster (That which was pictured in my post on the Roman party.)
3rd Place N.G. Greek History
3rd Place N.G. Latin Lit
3rd Place N.G. Latin Vocab
4th Place Me Latin Derivatives
4th Place N.G. Latin Derivatives
5th Place GilbertGirl Pentathelon
5th Place N.G. Greek Derivatives
Hon Ment. Girls Door Contest

Well it was a ton of fun, I think we did pretty well and I definitely plan to go next year.

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Me a biblical scholar???? Yeah right. They're all multiple choice!

Oh well, I liked the quiz anyway.

Hat tip- Studeo

Salvete Omnes!!!!!!!

I just got back from WJCL (Wisconsin Junior Classical League) Latin Convention!!!!!!! It was A LOT of fun. It was not by any means restricted to written tests, oral tests etc., etc., etc, there was a costume contest, a war machines contest (tin foil only in the actual ship), an impromptu art, memorized oratory, impromptu oratory, art contests of almost all types, certamen (a bit like latin jeopardy), a t-shirt contest and spirit competition. Spirit includes a door decoration contest, a humorous roll call skit and the actual spirit competition. The spirit competition involves standing (or jumping, dancing... if you're sitting you're probably not going to do very well) in a large room and screaming at the top of your lungs (believe me you have to, to be heard) cheers, chants... whatever you want to do to represent your school. Smiles and similar outfits are also key. The point of this competition is to prove that latin is not a dead language, and if you ever go to a latin convention and watch (or participate in) spirit any thoughts of latin being dead will soon leave your mind. The volume is unbelievable, 450 some students all yelling at the top of their lungs makes for quite a bit of noise.

So this was my first year but our homeschool group has sent groups for several years now. We were the smallest delegation, 4 students compared to the next smallest with 9. But we did pretty well, our war machine held 17 dollars worth of pennies meriting 1st place for us in that contest!!!!!! We took first place in the spirit contest for the small school category!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our spirit included cheese heads, crazy hair and wigs (including a really long braid worn by the one guy on our team) impromptu togas, dancing around the table screaming "My cheese it has three corners, three corners has my cheese, and had it not three corners, it would not be my cheese!!!!!!!!!" and yelling chants like carpe caseum (seize the cheese), Julius Cheeser and carpe diem (sieze the day). Oh BTW, all the cheese elements are due to the theme of that day "Seize the Cheese" (the overall theme was carpe diem).
This is starting to get to be a really long post, I will continue later (maybe:). Oh and the picture is of our team in front of the capitol in Madison.

P.S. This blog has been really inactive lately, sorry.

On the Nativity

By St. John of the Cross

The time now having finally come
When his birth was due,
Like a husband newly wed
From his chamber he withdrew

Embracing his beloved spouse
With outstretched arms so deep.
Him the gracious mother then
In a manger lay to sleep,

Amid the stable's animals
Who their resided at their ease.
Men entoned their canticles
Angels sang their melodies,

Rejoicing in the wedding feast
Of two such spouses side by side.
But God as a tiny infant now
In the manger wept and cried.

Tears were the only bridal gems
To adorn this espousal strange.
The mother watched in wonderment
To see such marvelous exchange:

For God was bound to human grief;
In humans boundless joy had grown,
Which to one and to the other
Before this time was never known.

Another gem found in O Holy Night, from Sophia Insititute Press.

Happy New Year!!!!!

Hodie Christus Natus Est

Hodie Christus Natus Est
The little child lays now to rest
On that most holy wonderful night
The stars did not shine too bright
Nor was the angels song too great
To praise the mighty love that laid
God in a cattle manger

His virgin mother held him close
He was the one she loved the most
His human father made a bed
In a manger where cattle fed
Yet that stable cold and bare
Held the thing on earth most fair
God in a cattle manger

His plan of redemption has begun
The world will be saved through God the son
Now in the cradle one day on the cross
His sacrificial life of earthly loss
Would win for us the gates of paradise
But now He sleeps surrounded by snow and ice
God in a cattle manger

Now all is peace and calm
Not possible seems hurt or harm
As He lays so peaceful there
All around Him love and care
Shepherds and Kings came to the stable
They came to kneel before His cradle
God in a cattle manger

And even now we celebrate
Give gifts and parties to commemorate
The birth of a tiny helpless child
We give gifts and act more mild
Now let us bring gifts of love
To Him whose birth it is the day of
God in a cattle manger.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

90 seconds, 5000 years.....

Check this out. It gives you a brief overview of the extent of various empires in the middle east, very interesting.

hat-tip: Lilting House

A Roman Holiday Party

Yesterday we had a Christmas party with the Dead Language Latin Club, a homeschool club for Latin students. It was a costume party and I will call each person by the name of their character. (I by the way was Clio, the muse of History. After all I'm the history girl!) It was such a fun party even surpassing this event."Calliope", "Euterpe" and "Julius Caesar" came early to help finish preperations. We all got dressed in our Roman costumes and Calliope did my hair. Then came the other guests. First came Maximus, Marcus, and Octavious bearing a ham carved as a boar's head. The other guests soon began to stream in, Mecurius and Diana, a Caesar whose name switched several times, Caridoc and Osric (Picts complete with face paint) and Minerva 2 (my mom already bore that name). Then after a prayer, a song and several games of Mancala we began the feast. It looked and tasted amazing. After we were almost done our latecomers arrived, Venus 2 (Terri was also so named) and two ordinary Roman citizens. We took group pictures and had our Costume contest. Osric won the boy's contest, with Mecurius as runner-up. And Diana won the girls contest. Then came the skits, two teams acting out a story each from the Aenead (we do similar contests at all meetings, but not all from the Aenead.) My group had The Journey to the Underworld. Wherein Aeneas (acted by Octavious who conveniently had a sword) asks the cumean sibyl (played by me) how to visit his father, Anchises. She instructs him to take the golden bough (played by Calliope, frequently bowing). They must also bury their dead comrade ( Gus played this, BTW his assumed name for the party was Augustus, a soldier). In the underworld he meets the suicidal queen Dido (excellently portrayed by Diana) covered in orange paper flames, and his father Anchises (Marcus). All this was narrated by Osric who began the skit with the 20th centure fox trumoet call. Terri also appeared as the ship which carried Aeneas and co. to the sibyl, with a carven front of course. The other team had the story of the settling in Italy. But I don't know all the details. Can someone fill me in? After this we did the Pinata, filled with chocolate coins. Then it was four and time for the party to be over. Some had to leave, but a number stayed for a while after and chatted. Then finally everyone was gone and the party was over.... but we still have leftovers... (:

My 100th post!!!!!!

Yep, I've finally reached my 100th post! Now my first two posts, over a year ago, were about the gospel of Luke. So it is quite fitting that my hundreth post should be about the discussion we had the other night on....The Gospel of Luke!
We began with examining the theme often repeats, the theme of Be Not Afraid. We found many passages throughout the evening which followed this thread.
We also explored the greatly empahsized (but definitely not overdone) theme of forgiveness. We compared the two parables, The Prodigal Son and The Rich Man and Lazarus. The main difference between these two were the time of repentance. The prodigal son did sin but he repented before it was to late. He went home, apologized and was forgiven and joyfully received. But the Rich Man did not repent until after death, until it was too late so he was not forgiven.
We also discussed the Road to Emmaus, which has some great similarities in The Two Towers when Gandalf returns to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. We wondered why it was that the two disciples did not recognize him. We decided it was probably because their minds would already set to think that He was dead. So their mind set wouldn't let them see Him as He was.
I cannot remember what it was that we talked about after that but the conversation kept returning to the forgiveness theme, it was very interesting. Anyways we had a great discussion. If anyone who was present remembers more of later content please comment.