Random thoughts. Ponder as you wish.

1) Kids and Food for Thought

A new kitchen has led to some dynamite suppers! We had the best meal ever on Sunday. Juicy tender steaks. Fresh garden potatoes spiced perfectly. Garden veggies. And Joseph's favourite: chocolate pie for dessert. I forgot to mention that we were at my parents' house. As for our kitchen. Well, with kids, more work, and all around chaos, we get what we get. I wish I was a kid again. The other day we had some chow mein noodles to go along with some chicken. A crying baby meant the noodles got over cooked. Badly. They literally turned into a ball of mush. Becca and I stared at our plates in disbelief. The boys? "Mmmm! These are the best noodles ever!" Even John Paul kept coming up for air from his bowl of noodles to say: "These noodles are SO GOOD!" They both had multiple helpings. Four or five each. And then tonight we ate an uninspiring Friday supper of grilled egg and cheese sandwiches. I did add some bacon to the boys' sandwiches, though. Nevertheless, they gobbled them up. Joseph came up to me and thanked me for a delicious supper. John Paul added a carrot to his sandwich to form a hot dog of sorts, and then loudly gave "Mmmms" after each bite ("What about Bob?" style). Joseph reminded me frequently that the bacon was extra good. I just sat there staring at my plate. I might be up at midnight for a little trip to the fridge. Not our boys. They went to bed with nice full bellies.



2) More Work

Work continues on our house. It, in fact, never ends. At what point does a house become a new house? We used to discuss things like that in Intro to Philosophy ("At what point does the Academy van become a new van, if everything gets replaced?"). Here I built a little spice rack using left over wood, some cable, and the sides of really old peach boxes we got from a farmer friend.

 

I built a mini pull out island, and shelving, using more scrap pieces of wood, some castors and cable. That pot on the stove you see has boiled water in it. Update coming...

And this week, among other things, I painted our ugly entrance way and have been laying down flooring. The flooring is now more consistent. I had a bunch of glue and grout (which is super expensive) left over. So... why not more work?!

3. Play

We will take a few days off though and have a mini vacation. We're driving to Saskatoon early on Sunday to attend the Latin Mass. We're super excited to hear that a great young priest, literally young, Fr. Geoff Young, will be saying the Mass. Afterwards we will visit with my sister and family (and go to the forestry zoo). We then will drive to Regina and spend two whole nights at a hotel! We plan to swim, visit the RCMP museum. Check out the new Mosaic stadium while saying good bye to the old one (and hopefully seeing a Rider practice). Shop. Walk by the beautiful Wascana lake near the legislature and feed the geese. And who knows what else. Yay for a three day vacation!   


4. Back to School

And then I will need to spend a few days prepping for school. Just a few. Or two. Maybe even one. This upcoming year I will be teaching six phys ed classes, grades 2-5, and 3 arts ed classes, grades 3-5. So it will be over 200 students again, and my days will be quite chaotic. My personal goal is to be even more dedicated to my fitness (aren't you happy to hear that Becca? More evenings with me in the basement?!). The more fit I am, the better I am with phys ed. It's that simple. *kisses bicep*


5. Olympics.

Golly they're addicting to watch! I've loved the rugby, golf, and swimming. But my favourite is always the actual track and field events. They are what make the Olympics. As mentioned, I've enjoyed the swimming, but I think there are far too many events. 100m this, 200m that. Relay with it. Change the stroke, do it all again... Hey, Phelps wins again! It's great, but it takes away from it. In comparison, think of the 100m sprint. The runners have so much pressure. This is their race! They need to start fast. But cannot false start. The rarity of it I appreciate. Swimming is like being served spaghetti for supper, every night. It's good, but loses any chance of being great because it's too frequent. The 100m sprint is a great steak and potatoes, served rarely. I appreciate that more. Gosh I'm hungry. Is it midnight yet? I think there's some spaghetti in the fridge, actually.


6. Kids

Our kids are still cute, in case you were wondering. Emilie is a Momma's girl. Joseph loves to help, and John Paul, well, he's John Paul. He's his own boss. I kind of respect that. And I kind of want to smack him because of it. But he is who he is. Tonight he refused to say his three Hail Marys. Just flat out refused, because that's what he wanted. He went to his room screaming and crying. Later he came out, with the promise of saying his prayers. When he got to the living room, of course, he flat out refused to pray. I took him to bed. He sobbed uncontrollably for a while. Then crawled into my arms and hugged me tight. Then started chatting as if nothing happened. Sigh. I left him to fall asleep on is own. Speaking of which, I should go check on him. He's probably still chatting.

 7. Water: D&P Update

There has been an exciting 'development'! A possible fix to our water problems may come within a couple of weeks! This is an answer to our prayers. I wonder if it was God who answered, or Development and Peace? I like to think that they, after reading my previous blog, worked tirelessly to solve our issue. I picture lay workers, even bishops, up all night working phones and making behind the scenes efforts to help us. "I don't care if he's saying Mass right now! Get me Francis on the phone! There's a family that needs our help! Plus, they have a picture of the big guy with a water bottle... it looks legit! Yes a water bottle! Think of the scandal! And, oh, hi Francis! Hey, we need help..." Clearly I need to write Development and Peace a big cheque. I think they should change their title of work, from social justice to social mercy, because that is what they are. If you wish to donate to them also, simply click on this link here. Please do so!

Mercy me I'm hungry! Maybe I'll just have a drink of water instead.  

A Tale of Two Cities

I remember following the London Summer Olympics that many Catholic commentators (not the  people who read the announcements before Mass) described the opening and closing ceremonies as the secular world's version of liturgy. In this commentary it was pointed out that the secular world creates this liturgy because man has an underlying need to engage in ritual (and ultimately Divinely instituted praise of God). However, of course, the secular form of liturgy and rite fails to truly lift the human heart, and ultimately, or to use the phrase "at the end of the day," is meaningless.

Sorry, the above was a bit of a mouthful. Nevertheless, just for the sake of interest, I found it striking when comparing the London "liturgy" to the Sochi "liturgy." The London ceremonies, particularly the closing ones, were filled with rock and pop culture. They had vulgarity and even mocked Catholic tradition and beauty (immodest dancing nuns). They integrated the secular world into this liturgy. The result was, at least I found, very distasteful. And this comes from a guy who actually really enjoys British rock.

On the other hand, though I normally care little for Russian culture, I found both Sochi ceremonies to be incredibly stunning, beautiful, and even peaceful. Right from the start an emphasis was placed on the timeless classics of Russian culture. The great Russian composers were invoked. The literary classics of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were narrated. The Red Army choir sang as only they can. The richness of costume and, gulp, even ballet was demonstrated. In effect, the Sochi ceremonies sought a timeless beauty. Secular in some respect, but still hinting at a permanence of beauty found ultimately in that one transcendent Beauty (identified through Aristolilean philosophy as God). To me, and I'm sure many others, the Sochi ceremonies were magnificent.




They made me think of the current state of Catholic liturgy. On one hand we have a large group of Catholics who desperately attempt to incorporate our modern culture into the Mass. Folk music, heck, even rock music, find their way into the Divinely instituted liturgy. The result, like the London closing ceremonies, is not beauty and inspiration but rather cheap gulps of excitement that neither raise the heart or leave peace to the soul. On the other hand, insofar as Catholic liturgy seeks the timeless art which speaks of the transcendent God (and yes, there are wonderful composers and artists in today's world who produce this beauty), all the more can we declare that we have lifted our hearts to the Lord.

vs.

or

vs.

So the Olympics were a poor-man's lesson (to the tune of 51 billion dollars) on the human heart's need to worship God not with mindless noise but rather with beauty, awe, and peace. Well done Sochi.

There you go Russia. I gave you a compliment.

You still suck at hockey though.

Olympic Pride

What have I enjoyed most about the Olympics thus far? I think it was that five minute stretch during the opening ceremonies when there was no mention of gay rights. Yep, for five whole minutes we, at least the viewers of CBC (I can't speak for NBC), did not have to listen to commentators trumpeting the gay rights movement.

Other than that, it really has been non-stop, hasn't it? Commercials with two guys kissing. Pride flags flown, well, proudly at city hall and legislative buildings. Countless athlete profiles discussing this topic. Male sport commentators dressed up in makeup and rainbow clothes (at least on NBC). Harsh condemnation of anything Russian (stemming from their words against the gay movement). It never ends. Society is, at the very least, being numbed into accepting what is going on.

I just want to watch some sports! Really, is that too much to ask!? What on earth does the gay rights movement have to do with watching Ryan Getzlaf fire a slapshot past Jonathan Quick?

Having said all of this, I do have a bad feeling about what is going on. Ultimately, my bad feeling is coming from the lack of response from our bishops in Canada. Maybe some of them are too busy saving water bottles to notice, but I think now would be a very important time to engage what is going on and speak out in favour of what is true. To defend true marriage. To promote the Gospel.

I mean, could they even take five minutes of their time?