Cultivating Bug Love

My girls love being outside. They love getting dirty, wet, chalky, bubble-y.

They love the grass and flowers. The birds and animals.

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They aren’t really huge fans of bugs though.

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In fact, creepy crawlies are probably their least favorite things about being outside.

They like to explore and examine all sorts of things,

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but bugs tend to freak them out.

 

That is, until we decided to study bugs in school.

I is for Insects.

Heck yeah.

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Okay, she still looks a little freaked out in that picture, but that was at the very beginning of our unit. And she was holding a hornet. It was dead. But it was a hornet.

Anyway, we did all sorts of fun stuff with bugs.

We used bugs for counting and sorting and puzzling.

We studied bug life cycles.

We learned cool words: Metamorphosis. Chrysalis. Pupa. Thorax. Proboscis. Glossa.

We learned all about lots of different kinds of bugs and read tons of books, fiction and nonfiction, about them.

Books about ants.

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Like:

Ant Cities (Dorros)

Bug Safari (Barner)

Ants (Stewart)

The Ant and the Grasshopper (White)

Books about bees.

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Like:

Busy Buzzy Bee (Wallace)

Bees (Slade)

Honey Bees (Schaefer)

Bees! (Winchester/TIME for Kids)

Gran’s Bees (Thompson)

Crickets:

Old Cricket (Wheeler)

A Pocketful of Cricket (Caudill)

Crickets (Coughlan)

Mosquitoes:

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ear (Aardema)

Mosquitoes (Coughlan)

Butterflies:

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Are You a Butterfly? (Allen)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle)

From Caterpillar to Butterfly (Heiligman)

Caterpillar to Butterfly (Marsh)

Glasswings – A Butterfly’s Story (Kleven)

My Oh My – A Butterfly! (Rabe)

Where Butterflies Grow (Ryder)

Speaking of which, look what came in the mail yesterday!

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Grasshoppers:

The Ant and the Grasshopper (White, same book as above in the Ants section)

Grasshoppers (Coughlan)

Also:

Fireflies (Coughlan)

and

The Very Clumsy Click Beetle (Carle)

Even especially yucky, annoying bugs like termites and flies and fleas:

Roberto the Insect Architect (Laden)

Diary of a Fly (Cronin)

A Flea Story (Lionni)

And general bug books:

Insect Soup (Polisar)

Insects (Bernard)

How to Hide a Butterfly and Other Insects (Heller)

Insect Homes (Hopkins)

The Very Ugly Bug (Pichon)

Insect Detective (Voake)

The last book was especially great to read after we went to a local nature preserve yesterday to look for bugs. We went with some other homeschooling families and reserved time with a naturalist to look in the ponds and prairies for insects. Unfortunately, it was raining the whole time, so we didn’t even try the prairies and only got to scoop stuff out of the ponds. But the girls got to see dragonfly and damselfly nymphs (which I had never seen before) as well as lots of tiny tadpoles. They even saw one of the dragonfly nymphs start to eat one of the tadpoles!

Today we finished up with ladybugs:

The Grouchy Ladybug (Carle)

Starting Life Ladybug (Llewellyn)

Ladybug, Ladybug (Brown)

Ladybug Girl (Soman)

Lara Ladybug (Florie)

What the Ladybug Heard (Donaldson)

The freak-out factor with bugs has decreased significantly. They are much more likely now to say “cool!” when they see a bug than to be scared of it.

That’s not to say they’re totally loving bugs though. Miss lost her ever-loving mind yesterday when a mosquito got into the car as we were leaving the nature preserve.

But no one loves mosquitoes…

Clarification on My Thoughts About the Catholic Church

I had a strange experience the other day related to the post I wrote a few weeks ago called 9 Things I Like About the Catholic Church.

A woman wrote a blog post about my blog post. And she totally ridiculed me for it.

She didn’t ridicule me for going to church or for going to the Catholic Church. She slammed me for my apparently unsatisfactory reasons for going to the Catholic Church and my (obvious) lack of knowledge about the Bible.

Now, I’ll admit, I was very hurt when I first read what this woman wrote about me. I’m the first to acknowledge that I’m utterly ignorant of all this religion stuff, but I am trying really hard to learn about it and find my way to a fulfilling relationship with God. I’m getting there, and have been feeling really good about it. So to read something like that other post, basically saying that I’m not doing it right or well enough, well it felt like a kick in the gut. I’m mean, I’ve only been doing this for three months. Perhaps it might be okay for other, more experienced Christian folks to cut me a little bit of slack. Sure, correct me if I say something totally incorrect, roll your eyes at my sometimes flippant and irreverent way of talking about this stuff (I’m making fun of myself, not religion, when I do this, in case you couldn’t tell), even challenge my beliefs if I’m off the mark, but please don’t judge and criticize and sarcastically say things about me like, “Um. WHAT? Seriously? Has she even read the Bible?” That really isn’t helpful.

And just in case you couldn’t guess, no I have not read the Bible.

Anyway, this post is not meant to be about the other blog author or what she wrote. I don’t know the woman personally, and I don’t think she intended to be hurtful to me. I don’t think she actually even intended for me to read her post. I would have never known about it if I hadn’t happened to see that a bit of traffic was referred to my blog from her blog through some links she included in her post and clicked over out of curiosity. But either way, she was writing about what she feels passionately about, and I can respect that. I know that writing about religion opens me up to lots of criticism, and I left a comment directly for her to respectfully let her know some of my thoughts on what she said about me.

That said, I realized after reading her post that perhaps my original writing was not entirely clear (likely because of aforementioned flippancy and irreverence). So, I want to clarify my thoughts on the topic. Not because of what another blogger wrote about me, but because on reflection I think I really might have given the wrong impression on a few points. Even with this second attempt, I suspect my words will be somewhat clumsy because I am very unaccustomed to thinking about things like these, let alone writing about them in a coherent manner. But practice makes perfect, so here goes…

First of all, the 9 things I listed in the previous post are not the reasons I go to church. They aren’t really even the reasons I go to Catholic church. They are some things I have been surprised to find that I prefer about the Catholic Church over other types of services I have attended in the (very distant) past.

Someone might find the things I listed to be silly or frivolous reasons for choosing or preferring a particular type of Christian church. Maybe they are, though I don’t really think so. They’re just my personal preferences.

Probably I didn’t explain myself very eloquently. The way I feel and think about a religious issue will start to make sense to me in my head, but when I type it out, in my goofy style of writing, it doesn’t always sound quite right. I own that. So. I am going to try again on a few points where I think I may have given the wrong impression before. I’m including the original 9 things in italics for your reference.

1. I like that the priest isn’t overly preachy. There are a few nice readings during the service. The priest comments on them and on some other things. Done! It doesn’t feel like being lectured. I don’t like being lectured.

What I meant was to say that I like that the Catholic Homily is not a drawn out sermon all about a pastor’s interpretation of the Bible. It’s a to-the-point commentary to facilitate greater understanding of the Scripture (what I referred to simply as readings in the original post) that is read during the service. I find this type of presentation to ring more true.

2. Similarly, there is no hellfire and damnation talk. I don’t like hellfire and damnation talk. I refuse to sit and listen to someone tell me how sinful I am and how the world is going to Hell, particularly if he is yelling and/or red-faced and/or banging on a pulpit while doing it. No thank you. The Catholic priest talks about sin and repentance sometimes, but not in a scary, crazy, accusing way.

When I say, “I refuse to listen to someone tell me how sinful I am” that doesn’t mean that I think I’m not sinful. But here’s the thing about that: I have lived in this body and this mind for 37 years. I am well aware that I am a sinner. I choose not to attend a church service where the pastor feels the need to yell at me about it. To me, that type of preaching is not necessary or helpful and feels more like a performance than worship. The Catholic priest gets this point across well without the theatrics.

3. Along those lines, the Catholic service is nice and peaceful. I don’t much like church services where people are yelling out “Hallelujah!” and “Amen!” and such. Makes me uncomfortable.

I truly don’t think there is anything wrong with people choosing to attend or participate in a service like this, it’s just not for me.

4. Even so, the Catholic service has a joyful feel to it. No yelling required.

5. I really love the sound of a church full of people murmuring reverently in unison. This happens a lot throughout the Catholic Service, and I just like it.

Enough said.

6. I have never once heard mention of certain groups of people or of those who believe or act differently or not according to the Catholic teachings being bad or sinful or damned or anything else.

I do not believe any church or other organization should preach hate or intolerance and that is what I was getting at with this statement. Of course there are things that the Catholic Church is very firm about and I imagine they might say people can go to Hell for doing all sorts of stuff, I don’t know. I haven’t gotten to learning about that part yet. But I will not attend and expose my children to a church where the services are peppered with hateful statements about people who are different, whether that refers to people of other religious groups, gay people, people with piercings or tattoos (hello?), or whatever.

When we go to church, our kids sit through the service with us. The Catholic Service is family friendly. I don’t worry that my kids are going to hear hate-filled statements issuing forth from the priest’s mouth. I don’t worry that they will be frightened by the service.

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I do not mean to suggest in any way that I think all, or even most, other types of Christian church services are hateful or frightening. But unfortunately I have seen (as most of us have I think) a good bit of hurtful, judgmental, and/or bigoted behavior that is defended in the name of Christianity. I have experienced some of it personally as well. So to have found a place where I feel good about what is being taught, where I feel spiritual growth in a supportive environment, and where my husband has roots… That is a pretty big deal to me.

7. I enjoy the music during the service. It’s beautiful, but doesn’t leave me feeling as though I’m at a rock concert. It feels right for the service.

8. The people there are very kind. The priests and deacons are welcoming and speak to you as you come into and go out of the service. They shake hands and smile. The people in the church are nice too. This is not like many of my previous church experiences.

9. The Catholic service is beautiful. It just is. If you let yourself sit and listen and watch and sort of participate, the ritual and symbolism are just lovely. I say “sort of participate” because of course I don’t receive communion, and I haven’t gotten the hang of doing the sign of the cross and other stuff (stuff that I don’t even know the name of), and really I’m not there at this point anyway. But I like it. It moves me somehow.

These things probably apply to lots of churches, though I do like the Catholic way of doing things in particular. These aren’t in themselves reasons to choose a church, but yes they are part of what I like about the Catholic Church we attend.

 

I said in my original 9 Things post, and I’ll say it again here, I am sure there are many, many other wonderful churches out there. My writing about the things I like about Catholicism and the Catholic service is not meant to show disrespect to any other person, church, religion, etc. Unfortunately I have had some bad experiences with Christian people and churches that have left me guarded against the same types of judgmental attitudes I have seen. So I’m glad I have found a church where I feel comfortable.

I had no intention in the first post nor in this one of trying to say my church is better than any other, outside of saying it is better for me.

Letting Them Help


One of my shortcomings as a mom is in allowing and encouraging my kids to help around the house.

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They have little chores they have to do regularly, like picking up their toys, making their beds, and putting their cups/plates away after meals.

But what they really love to do is help me with my chores and cooking.

I know how much they love to help.

I know how much they love it and how good it is for them to do it. So I have been really trying to make a point of creating opportunities for them to help and inviting them to do so.

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Problem is, I tend to get caught up in just getting stuff done and done quickly. And when I get wrapped up in that I don’t invite the girls to help. I don’t pull out the kid-safe spreading knives I got for them and ask them to help me make their PB&Js; I hurry to make sandwiches so they don’t melt down from hunger. I don’t get out their special little brooms and sweep with them; I grab my super-powered cordless stick vac to get up the crumbs under the table.

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I chase them with the super-powered vacuum, which they love.

But I think they love helping more.

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So I’m making a point of trying to let them help more.

I got special squirt bottles for them filled with just water so they can help me clean the counters and floor. I try to think of ways they can help me with dinner ahead of time, so I don’t end up with not much for them to do when they offer, because all I have left to do involves non-kid-friendly stuff like using my sharp knife or working with raw meat or pan frying something in a hot pan.

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I need to keep doing better with this. I love the looks on their faces and the pride in their voices when they help me with my work.

And though I always have plenty of chores and cooking to do, my most important job is teaching them. Teaching them to work hard. To value helping. To be self-sufficient. To feel good about themselves.

Helping me helps them with all of this and more.

Summer Reading List

Recently I have signed up for my local library’s adult summer reading program. Each time I read 140 minutes I can enter my name in a weekly drawing for stuff like books, DVDs, etc. I have entered my name at least 10 times since the start date. That was Tuesday.

I read a lot. And they let me count the hours I read to my kids too. So I really read a lot.

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I have been logging my kids reading time too for a couple of different summer reading programs, and I logged 100 minutes for them yesterday. That’s a bit more than usual maybe, but not too much. It’s nap time now and we’ve already read 40 minutes today…

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Here are the kids’ programs we’re doing this summer:

You can do the Scholastic Summer Challenge and log minutes online, or the Half-Price Books Feed Your Brain Summer Reading Program, in which you keep track of minutes on a form you print out to earn “Bookworm Bucks.” I’m doing both of those for my kids plus the reading record for our local library. I think Chuck E. Cheese has a program too.

I have never kept track of the minutes/hours I read before, either for myself or my kids. It’s fun to see just how much time we do read in a day.

So all this thinking about how much we read has me thinking about what books I want to read this summer, and I thought I’d share a few that are on my list:

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1. Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill – Historical fiction about the slave trade during the 18th century. I actually just finished this one. It was excellent.

2. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom – True memoir written by a woman who survived a concentration camp after being arrested for assisting Jews in Nazi-occupied Holland. I read this as a teenager and really liked it but wanted to read it again now that I am older and might appreciate it more. Plus Super Friend read it recently and I like discussing books with her (we have our own 2-person book club). I’m about halfway through it, and I am so glad I’m reading it again.

3. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis – I have read part of this already. I’m going through it a few chapters at time and discussing them with a friend.

4. The Screwtape Letters also by C.S. Lewis – The correspondence from the Devil to his nephew Wormwood, a “novice demon.” This one sounds kind of odd to me, but comes very highly recommended by Super Friend and I trust her taste in books, so I am up for it.

5. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce – I don’t know much about this book, but it’s the choice of my other book club for June, so it’s on my list.

6. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story by Donald Miller – This is the second memoir written by Miller, which describes what happened after his first highly successful memoir Blue Like Jazz  was being made into a movie and he had to discuss his life with producers, realizing it wasn’t all that interesting. This is the June book for my Super Friend Book Club.

7. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway – The classic novel about a group of expats in 1920s Paris and their adventures with bullfighting in Spain. I have wanted to read this for a long time, but especially since I read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (a great read, historical fiction written from the point of view of EH’s first wife Hadley Richardson)

8. These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine 1881-1901 by Nancy Turner – Historical fiction, written as journal entries of a woman on the frontier in the Arizona Territories. July book for my other book club.

9. On the Beach by Nevil Chute – Classic doomsday book I’ve been wanting to read for a long time so I’m putting it here so I actually get it and read it.

10. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini – The newest book by one of my favorite authors. Can’t wait to read this one.

11. He Leadeth Me by Fr. Walter J. Ciszek – True story of Father Walter Ciszek who was captured by the Russian Army during WWII and imprisoned as a “Vatican spy” in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia for 23 years.

12. Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood by Karen Maezen Miller – A memoir of early motherhood as a spiritual journey.

13. The Conscious Parent by Shefali Tsabary, Ph.D. – A “look in the mirror” approach to parenting.

14. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn – Because I just read Gone Girl and loved it. I’ll probably read Sharp Objects too.

That ought to get me at least through July.

What’s on your summer reading list?

Nature’s Classroom

We got back last night after four days at the Farm. My girls haven’t been to the Farm in quite a while. They’ve grown a lot since last summer, and they really blossomed during this trip.

There is really no better learning and play than that which happens in the great outdoors.

The weather was kind of crummy. Rainy and windy and chilly much of the time we were there. But they still got lots of time outside.

The discoveries were plentiful.

We discovered that Lass has a love for fishing.

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She’s like her Daddy. She was very determined to catch fish and particular about where she wanted to drop her line. She said, “I want to catch a whale, Daddy. But not a big whale, because that might break our rod. Just a little whale.”

She didn’t catch a whale, but she caught quite a few crappies for her efforts.

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After she caught the first one she moved to a new spot and said, “Now I’m gonna catch another big fish.” And she did.

That sure made her Daddy smile.

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Miss did some fishing too, but she was much less into it than Lass.

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She was more interested in getting dirty. These girls love a good puddle, the muddier the better.

We discovered puddles. And mud.

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It’s all just one big puddle for them…

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As I mentioned, there was lots of rain during our visit, which meant lots of runoff. While we were taking a Ranger ride around the Farm, we discovered this area where the water was flowing down to a drainage pipe into one of the ponds.

Flowing water + Big puddles + Rocks for jumping = A perfect country “splash pad”

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I halfheartedly tried to keep them sort of dry at first, but it just wasn’t going to happen.

Miss experimented with how far she could walk into a big puddle before it got deep enough to flow over the tops of her boots. Once it did, she didn’t care, but it was funny to watch her “testing the waters.”

Both girls were dumping water out of their boots when we were done.

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Lass just wanted to roll in the water and repeatedly plunked herself down on her butt in a big puddle. I did draw the line at letting her lie down in it, though she would have if I had let her.

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In the photo below she’s checking to see how wet her rear end was.

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She didn’t care one bit.

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The drainage pipe emptied into the pond. My Father-in-law went to the empty-out end and called back through the pipe to the girls. It took them a few minutes to figure out who or what was calling them through that pipe. They got quite a kick out of it. 

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Baby Sis got a taste of the fun on the Farm this trip too.

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She still isn’t quite sure that she likes grass, but we’re working on that one. 

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More discoveries:

Just before the girls found their “splash pad,” we were looking into the pond for crawdads. My husband caught two tadpoles, in different stages of metamorphosis. One was still fully “tadpole,” with no legs at all. The other was bigger and had his two back legs developed. It was so cool for the girls (and me) to see them like that side by side.

On a treasure hunt earlier in the trip, the girls were riding around the farm in the Ranger with their Dad, grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles (I stayed in the house with Sis for that one). They drove near a large area of tall grass and my brother-in-law’s bird dog stopped and stared at it. My brother-in-law said, “Get it!” and the dog ran to the grass, flushing out a huge turkey! Apparently it scared the heck out of everyone in the treasure hunting party. My girls are still talking about that turkey.

They discovered the fun of boat washing.

They are always up for any opportunity to get wet and play with bubbles.

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They saw so much and learned so much in just four days.

Lass found a worm on the edge of one of the ponds. She was so proud of that worm.

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Also near the pond was an almost fully intact skunk skeleton. It had been totally picked over by vultures, so there was no meat left on it, just a little bit of it’s hide hanging off. My father-in-law picked it up so Lass could look at it. It had the whole skull, spine, ribs, and most of the legs still all perfectly together. Lass has been talking about that ever since. “That skunk stinked my nose!” she says.

There was a killdeer’s nest in the rocks of the driveway. They got to check out the eggs and watch the things the Mama Killdeer did to try to lure us away from her babies.

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Miss wanted so badly to catch that Mama Killdeer. She ran and chased that bird endlessly. Like her sister with the fish, she was determined.

She didn’t catch her.

The girls also got to see a very small bird’s nest in a tiny lilac tree. It had two eggs in it, from different birds. My husband and mother-in-law explained to the girls (and to me) that cowbirds lay their eggs in other birds’ nests for other mama birds to take care of them. Who knew?

They got to see and examine lots of bugs, from crickets to butterflies to ticks (ew).

I love the stuff my kids learn when we go outside, especially in the country.

I spend a lot of time preparing the things I teach them in our little home preschool. I comb for books and printable activities for them to do. I search Pinterest for art projects to fit with each theme we do. I laminate, I cut, I glue and velcro and stick magnets on.

But nothing compares, nothing comes even close, to the richness of nature’s classroom for  providing learning and growth for my kids. And for me.  

Perusing a Wedding Album with Preschoolers

A few days ago I got out the photo album from my husband’s and my wedding and looked through it with the girls.

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It was our wedding anniversary, and I was trying to explain what an “anniversary” is. I got out the book and told them that the pictures were from Mommy and Daddy’s wedding, which was five years ago.

They really got a kick out of the photos. It was fun for them to see pictures of so many family members in one book. They pointed and exclaimed and excitedly named lots of people, including their Great-Grandma S (who would have turned 93 today, by the way).

In the photo below Miss is pointing to my Dad saying, “Look, there’s Grandpa!”

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They asked lots of questions about my “married dress” and what we were doing in the photos.

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Miss wanted to know why our noses were smushed in the photo of us kissing.

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It was fun for me to look at the photos and to talk with the girls about the pics and the day.

 

They asked me, “Why did you marry Daddy?”

“Because I love him very much,” I said.

I think it’s important for them to see and always know how much their Dad and Mom love each other.

9 Things I Like About the Catholic Church

If you read this post of a few months ago (or this one) about faith and religion, you know that I have recently started going to church for the first time in, oh 30 years or so. Catholic Church, to be precise.

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I agreed to go to Catholic Church by default really, since my husband is Catholic and I am, well nothing religiously, I suppose. Rather, I don’t have an affiliation with one particular denomination of church. He does. So it made the most sense to go where he is comfortable.

Growing up one of my closest friends was Catholic. Whenever I spent a Saturday night at her house we went to church on Sunday. I kind of got a kick out of it. Stand up, sit down. Now kneel, touch your forehead, chin, chest, shake hands, “Peace be with you,” and so forth. I thought it was fun, but weird.

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Never in my life did I picture myself becoming a regular attendee of a Catholic Church. I didn’t really have anything major against the Catholic Church, other than I thought it was odd and kind of overdone. I just didn’t want to go there.

Nevertheless, these days we are going to a Catholic Church. Really. As in, regularly. It’s foreign and nice at the same time.

The crazy thing? I actually like it.

Strange, but true. And here’s something else –

About a week ago, I had a bit of a faith crisis. Yes, another one. Already.

I read something about the Catholic doctrine that had me saying, “Oh Hell no. I am not going there anymore. I am not going to baptize my children in that church, no friggin’ way. If we are going to continue going to church, we’re going to have to find someplace else. Someplace Not Catholic!

Then I calmly and maturely asked my husband about my concerns. As it turns out, I was mistaken. No need to freak out. Crisis resolved.

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Interestingly, during the 24-or-so hours that I was in a misplaced rage against Catholicism, I felt really, really disappointed and sad. I have become fond of the Catholic Church. I find the service to be very peaceful and calming. When I sit in the church on Sundays, it’s a nice time to reflect. I’m learning things, and feeling some stirring of spirituality that I didn’t think was in me anymore.

And when I imagined attending a different type of service, I was quite unhappy. I wanted to continue going to the Catholic Church. This was very surprising to me, so I’ve thought a lot about it in the past few days trying to understand it.

Here’s what I’ve come to realize about the Catholic Church and why I actually prefer it to other services:

1. I like that the priest isn’t overly preachy. There are a few nice readings during the service. The priest comments on them and on some other things. Done! It doesn’t feel like being lectured. I don’t like being lectured.

2. Similarly, there is no hellfire and damnation talk. I don’t like hellfire and damnation talk. I refuse to sit and listen to someone tell me how sinful I am and how the world is going to Hell, particularly if he is yelling and/or red-faced and/or banging on a pulpit while doing it. No thank you. The Catholic priest talks about sin and repentance sometimes, but not in a scary, crazy, accusing way.

3. Along those lines, the Catholic service is nice and peaceful. I don’t much like church services where people are yelling out “Hallelujah!” and “Amen!” and such. Makes me uncomfortable.

4. Even so, the Catholic service has a joyful feel to it. No yelling required.

5. I really love the sound of a church full of people murmuring reverently in unison. This happens a lot throughout the Catholic Service, and I just like it.

6. I have never once heard mention of certain groups of people or of those who believe or act differently or not according to the Catholic teachings being bad or sinful or damned or anything else.

7. I enjoy the music during the service. It’s beautiful, but doesn’t leave me feeling as though I’m at a rock concert. It feels right for the service.

8. The people there are very kind. The priests and deacons are welcoming and speak to you as you come into and go out of the service. They shake hands and smile. The people in the church are nice too. This is not like many of my previous church experiences.

9. The Catholic service is beautiful. It just is. If you let yourself sit and listen and watch and sort of participate, the ritual and symbolism are just lovely. I say “sort of participate” because of course I don’t receive communion, and I haven’t gotten the hang of doing the sign of the cross and other stuff (stuff that I don’t even know the name of), and really I’m not there at this point anyway. But I like it. It moves me somehow.

So there it is. Surprisingly, I enjoy, dare I say prefer going to Catholic Church. It is a nice fit for me. It makes me feel good, and not at all uncomfortable (though I admit the first few times I was kind of uneasy).

Beyond enjoying the Catholic Mass, I have been educating myself on the doctrine of Catholicism. I’m reading a lot from this blog in particular, which just makes a lot of sense to me. I figure if I’m going to go to Catholic Church and take my children there, I ought to learn more about it. I have been surprised by what I have found. Though there are a lot of things about Catholicism that I don’t agree with, by educating myself about the reasons Catholics believe the things they do, I am beginning to at least understand it a little. It’s not as stuffy as I thought it was.

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As with most things, when I open my mind and actually educate myself about something, I find myself pleasantly surprised and less judgmental. How about that?

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I do want to add that I am well aware that there are lots of other great churches out there, and by describing my preferences I am not trying to belittle any other religion, faith or lack thereof, or type of church service. I’m just trying to find what is best for me, not to disparage what works for anyone else.

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After my brief panic last week, I was especially grateful to attend and enjoy church today.

I Think It’s Interesting!

I went to the library yesterday and grabbed a bunch of stories by one of our new favorite children’s authors, Robert Munsch.

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We just discovered this prolific author. His stories are cute, funny, and often feature clever protagonists. Some of our favorites are “The Paper Bag Princess,” “Mud Puddle,” and “We Share Everything!”

We read a new one yesterday called “Stephanie’s Ponytail.” It’s a witty tale of a little girl who wears a ponytail in different ways and gets copied by others in her class at school. The moral of the story is “don’t blindly follow people.” It’s a good book, and we all enjoyed it and laughed at her funny ponytails.

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Today, Miss said she wanted one ponytail “coming right out the back” and two more on the sides. I gently suggested that perhaps she would like to have either a ponytail in the back or two on the sides. Her response?

“But Mo-om! I think it’s interesting!”

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Well. Yes it is.

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Interesting.

I love her independence.

Speaking of Awkward… A Word About Tattoos

You might have noticed when I posted the following photo in last Friday’s post that I have a tattoo.

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I actually have two.

The one pictured above was done in the summer of 1995 (I was 19). The other was the summer of 2000.

In choosing the places to get tattooed, both times I selected spots on my body where I could easily cover the tattoo if necessary in pretty much any type of outfit (shorts, tank top, etc), but where it might be shown occasionally, like when wearing a bathing suit. Seemed like a good way to do it.

The second tattoo fits these criteria also. It’s on my lower back.

Might I make note of the fact that the second tattoo was done five years before the movie “Wedding Crashers” was released, in which the term “tramp stamp” was coined to refer to a tattoo appearing on a woman’s lower back? (at least I think that’s where the term comes from, I never heard it before seeing that movie).

Now that I’m in my, uh, late 30s, my tattoos seem less awesome than they did when I first got them.

I still kind of like the one on my leg. At least I don’t hate it. It’s just three little footprints. I’m sort of indifferent to it.

But the one on my back has got. to. go. I have some serious tattoo regret about that one. Two yellow roses with stems twisted together. Gag. What was I thinking? And the “tramp stamp” joke? While it isn’t the reason I regret the tat, it certainly doesn’t help matters.

Someday I will have the back tattoo removed. Possibly the leg tat too.

Now, on to the awkward part.

My kids, naturally have seen my tattoos.

Naturally they ask me what they are. I tell them. Then, naturally they ask why I got those tattoos. Good question kids.

My response thus far has been, “Well, Mommy made a bad choice to get those tattoos.” And then of course they ask why it was a bad choice, and I explain because I was much younger when I chose to get them, and now I no longer want the tattoos but they don’t come off, so I have to go to the doctor someday to get them off. Thus, bad choice.

I always thought that was a pretty good response. I like to teach my kids about making choices and dealing with the results. I try not to shy away from allowing them to see examples of choices I have made, good and bad. So, explaining it the way I have done seemed appropriate. I might even say it seemed quite clever.

But then. Oh, the thing I did not foresee. The consequence I didn’t plan on. My kids sometimes see other people with tattoos!!!

I’ll give you one guess what they say.

“Mommy, why did that lady and you make a bad choice?” In front of the other mom at the local coffee shop/play area, who fortunately didn’t seem to notice my child was staring and pointing at her.

“Mommy, why did Miss B and you make a bad choice?” In front of the staff member at the YMCA’s drop-in childcare, who did notice and asked me what the question meant, at which point I mumbled something about not liking the tattoo on my back as I dragged my kids away.

Now that the weather is warming up and people are baring their skin, and their ink, more and more, this is becoming a bit of a problem.

Guess I’m not as clever as I thought.

 

Singing In the Rain, Part 2

Many years ago, my Grandma embellished these umbrellas.

DSC_0511 She was in a performing group. They did all sorts of musical shows, and she made all her costumes for their acts. When the group stopped doing performances, she gave me many of her costumes and props. I’ve been holding on to them for years, just waiting for the time to pull them out.

These umbrellas were just right for us this week.

We used one for this little counting and number identification game:

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Cut off the “raindrop,” count the dots on it, find the right number, and stick it up.

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Even better, was how perfect they were to dance with while “Singing in the Rain” again.

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I mentioned in this post how Miss was asking me to sing rain songs while we played outside in the actual rain with their regular umbrellas, and all I could come up with was “Blame It On the Rain.”

This time, it was raining outside again, but it was cold and windy, so we opted to dance with our special umbrellas inside.

I pulled up some Gene Kelly on You Tube and we danced and sang.

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It makes me smile to see them dancing with my Grandma’s fancy umbrellas.

I think they have some of her musical talent too.

Thanks Gram.