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Outside my window…

The fight for grass continues!  The seed has sprouted in most places and it is coming up almost as albino grass – with no green coloring to it? It is a special blend of grass specifically for shady places so I’m going to give it some time to see what it will do.

I am thinking…
about my kids.
Calvin and Sarah have a new house and finally also replaced their very, very old automobiles.
Sam is working 60 hours a week, Gabe is changing jobs.
Noah has a job and is running every day trying to get his mileage up.
Izzy is planning her graduation party, matting her artwork and making her centerpieces as well as continuing in her anatomy drawing, and Rosie is running every day.

I am thankful…
for a busy and productive summer.

I am pondering…
how to manage my time- I need to get my science class ready for fall and also prepare for my spring concert.
One of my Favorite things

We have a new parochial vicar and last weekend I got to help him do his very first wedding. As luck would have it, neither of the young servers showed up to do the wedding. I quickly got on the phone and tried to get ahold of Noah. His phone was on the charger and I couldn’t reach him.  So I called my goddaughter and she was able to get ahold of him quickly. Noah ran into the church at the very last minute (in fact the wedding had already started by the time he got there) and had the privilege of helping Father A. with his very first wedding. I was very proud of both of them.

I am hearing…
the air conditioner and my tinnitus

In the kitchen…
I’m giving this a try tonight! 

I am wearing…
Brown shorts and a white T-shirt.

I am going…

• to walk or work out every day with Pfilates .  I’m walking on the trail every day now, but I might have to get there earlier and get my walking in because Rosie is just too fast and she finishes before I do! My biggest goal though is to make sure that I get weight training and ab work in. I can always do the cardio but I tend to let weights, abs and stretching go and I want to make sure I don’t neglect them. 
• to cut my carbs via the Wheat Belly Total Health: The Ultimate Grain-Free Health and Weight-Loss Life Plan recommendations. I am still limiting carbs but I am really trying the intermittent fasting now. I fast for about 16 hours between 7 p.m. and 11 a.m.  and my walking time happens during those hours. So far, no problems.  
• Practicing Bach’s Sonata in E flat. 
• Plan my General Science class. 
• Helping Gabe with his resume. 

Also I started listening to this book after I heard the author on Kresta in the Afternoon on Ave Maria Radio.

From the Learning Rooms…

Maryrose:                                             

Reading Trumpet of the Swan and get back into the swing of running. Also, I think we are going to do some testing this week. 

Isadora: Senior year!

Getting ready for Izzy’s party.
Izzy is continuing to add mud to the drywall at the flip house. Last weekend she helped her dad and brothers put in some replacement windows! 

A quote to share…

“I’ve noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my thirty years of teaching: schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers to care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic — it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor.” 
― John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Education

“…if the student comes to something in his or her studies that they find fascinating, there won’t be any time or inclination to study it in depth and even if there is, there won’t be any credit for it!  Me  – in 2013
A picture to share…

I put this picture on my facebook page for Father’s Day. It is the only photo I am aware of that had both my grandpa and my father in it. I never noticed this before, but my dad looks kind of sad in this picture. When I noticed that it made me feel kind of bad for him. My father was a good man, but he wasn’t a family man. He probably shouldn’t have married and had children. But I’m glad he made it to my wedding and I think I’m also happy to see that walking me down the aisle on my wedding day meant something to him.

My grandpa, on the other hand, looks like he’s on a mission and he’s gonna get it done! – which indeed he did.

Requiesce in pace Grandpa and Daddy.